GUARDS 75 



when the purchaser, secure in the possession of the 

 nineteen turkeys, remarked that he had been quite pre- 

 pared to go as high as ^30 or ^40 in order to secure them. 



Bayzand and Foules driving one night with an empty 

 coach had a stroke of luck which occasioned them much 

 joy. The Mazeppa suddenly gave a lurch which showed 

 that she had gone over something and Bayzand got down 

 to investigate. It proved to be a bacon pig, which had 

 evidently fallen out of a waggon bound for Hereford 

 market. Such a heaven-sent gift could not be negle6ted 

 and the coachman and guard determined to have it at 

 all costs. Bayzand tried to pull it towards the coach, 

 but it was beyond his powers. In such cause, however, 

 the coachman did not scruple to risk the coach and the 

 proprietor's team of thoroughbred horses, and he left 

 the box and went to his colleague's assistance. Together 

 they started to drag the prize along, but the noise they 

 made startled the horses, and Foules was obliged to 

 rush to and fro to quiet them, so that it was some time 

 before the pig was pulled up to the coach and made an 

 inside passenger for the rest of the journey. When the 

 Mazeppa reached its destination Bayzand drove off in- 

 quisitive porters, and at the first opportunity he and the 

 coachman carried their find to the latter's house, where 

 they divided the pig between them, and declared that 

 their unexpedfed present proved the best bacon they 

 had ever tasted. 



Many queer customers went into the boot, ostensibly 

 provided for the conveyance of passengers' luggage, but 

 which at a pinch could be made to do duty as a larder or 



