THE MONEY COINERS. 125 



stone, and was not armed at all, he got away 

 before help came, and I had nothing for it but 

 to hark back. I soon met with Smith, and a 

 farmer named Clare, who was on horseback, 

 and we all three returned to the wood, which 

 we carefully searched. We failed to find any- 

 thing, and so went back to the public house 

 where I had left my things. It seemed that, 

 after I had started in pursuit of the third man, 

 Smith took his prisoners back towards the pub- 

 lic house. Meeting Mr. Clare on the way he 

 explained matters to him, and the latter then 

 ordered his men to take charge of the coiners 

 whilst he himself went with Smith to my assis- 

 tance. 



When we reached the public house we 

 found there a lot of young tradesmen, who had 

 turned out in pursuit of the coiners, as I have 

 before mentioned. They were very mighty in 

 their conversation, saying what they would 

 have done, or would do ; what they actually 

 did was nothing. I never found gas of much 

 use in a row ; very few gassy men show up well 

 in a rough and tumble. These young trades- 



