THE WATCHERS WATCHED 45 



ground — distant about half a mile, on the Downs 

 side, from the Kingsclere stables. It was necessary 

 for Porter to pass through the tollhouse gateway 

 with his horses in order to reach his training-ground. 

 For this privilege he compounded with the collector 

 by paying him an annual rent. Several touts had 

 established themselves thereabouts, and performed 

 unremitting sentry duty during the prevalence of 

 daylight, off and on. It is shrewdly conjectured 

 that the watchers had also devised a code of signals. 

 On the night before the trial, of which, by some 

 means best known to themselves, they had got ' the 

 office,' they induced the tollkeeper, for a considera- 

 tion, to allow them to take temporary possession of 

 his habitation. Providing themselves with liquid 

 and other refreshments, obtained from the Swan 

 Inn in the village, and some packs of cards, they 

 arranged to make a jolly yet wideawake night of 

 it. But it happened that the other and principal 

 parties to this extraordinary trial were equally wide- 

 awake. The touts were under the eye of an alert 

 observer, one of Porter's most trustworthy servants, 

 who kept his master fully informed of all that was 

 going on. Said he, on that fateful night when 

 those 'jolly companions, every one,' were at the 

 high tide of their nocturnal enjoyment, ' If you like, 

 sir, I can make every one of them safe. There's a 

 chain and staple outside the door, and a padlock 

 would do the job.' Consent was, of course, cheerfully 

 given, and ' the job ' was done. Porter, avoiding 

 the tollhouse altogether, took the horses by a bridle- 



