To my protests he turned an incredulous ear, remarking
only that there was always some one ahead, which was a fact. When
at last we drew near our destination he found himself a passenger
short. After some puzzled inquiry of the rest he came back and,
mounting to his seat beside me, said quietly: "One of them fell
out on his head, they say, down the road. I had him to deliver at
the inn, but it can't be blamed on me, can it?"
He was not the only philosopher in that company. Inside rode two
passengers, one apparently an official, sheriff, or something, the
other a doctor, who debated all the way the propriety of uniforming
the physician in attendance upon executions. The sheriff evidently
considered such a step an invasion of his official privilege.
"Why," cried the doctor, "it is almost impossible now to tell the
difference between the doctor and the delinquent." "Ah, well,"
sighed the other, placidly settling back in his seat. "Just let
them once take the wrong man, then we shall see."
Through forest and field, over hill and vale, by the still waters
where far islands lay shimmering upon the summer sea like floating
fairy-lands, into the deep, gloomy moor went my way.
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