the first of the persons with whom this history has business. The Dover roa

d the mail, were all so heavy that the horses had three times already come to a stop, beside once drawing the coach across the road, with the mutinous intent of taking it back to Blackheath. Reins and whip and coachman and guard

ts. As often as the driver rested them and brought them to a stand, with a wary `Wo-ho! so-ho then!' the near leader violently shook his head and everything upon it--like an unusuall

ist, made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out

id, from anything he saw, what either of the other two was like; and each was hidden under almost as many wrappers from the eyes of the mind, as from the eyes of the body, of his two companions. In those da

ndescript, it was the likeliest thing upon the cards. So the guard of the Dover ma

hind the mail, beating his feet, and keeping an eye and a hand on the arm-chest befor

a substratu

other and the guard, they all suspected everybody else, and the coachman was sure of nothing but the horses; as to which

ll and you're at the top and be damned to you, fo

the guard

k do you mak

s, good, pa

oachman, `and not atop of Shooter

scramble for it, and the three other horses followed suit. Once more, the Dover mai

e three had had the hardihood to propose to another to walk on a little ahead into the mist an

es stopped to breathe again, and the guard got down to skid the whe

hman in a warning voice,

you sa

oth li

at a canter c

the guard, leaving his hold of the door, an

g's name,

, he cocked his blunderbuss,

step, half in the coach and half out of it; they remained in the road below him. They all looked from the coachman to the guard, and from the guard to the coac

added to the stillness of he night made it very quiet indeed. The panting of the horse

any rate, the quiet pause was audibly expressive of people out of breath

a gallop came fast and

as loud as he could roar. `Yo

h splashing and floundering, a man's voice c

it is?' the guard ret

the Dov

you want

passenger,

pass

arvis

t was his name. The guard, the coachman, and t

`because, if I should make a mistake, it could never be set right

enger, then, with mildly quavering

Jerry,' growled the guard to himself. `

Mr.

s the m

fter you from over

ind more swiftly than politely by the other two passengers, who immediately scrambled into he

so `Nation sure of that,' said the g

!' said Jerry, more

o' yourn, don't let me see your hand go nigh 'em. For I'm a devil at a quick m

nger stood. The rider stooped, and, casting up his eyes at the guard, handed the passenger a small folded paper. The rid

enger, in a tone of qu

of his raised blunderbuss, his left at the barrel,

ank. You must know Tellson's Bank in London. I am going

as you're

rst to himself and then aloud: `"Wait at Door for Mam'selle." It's not

hat`s a Blazing strange answer,

w that I received this, as well as if I wr

who had expeditiously secreted their watches and purses in their boots, and were now making a general pretence o

an the descent. The guard soon replaced his blunderbuss in his arm-chest, and, havin

were a few smith's tools, a couple of torches, and a tinder-box. For he was furnished

ep the flint and steel sparks well off the straw, and get a light

ly over the

lo,

hear the

id,

you make o

g at al

spent horse, but to wipe the mud from his face, and shake the wet out of his hat-brim, which might be capable of holding about half a gallon. After standing with the

is hoarse messenger, glancing at his mare. `"Recalled to life." That's a Blazing strange message. Much of that wouldn'