ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 75 



seized him, and plunged him into the mud-hole, 

 holding him betwixt them, and occasionally dipping 

 him over head. He, however, proved obstinate, and 

 protested his innocence until he became speechless. 

 They pulled him out, and, rolling him on the ground 

 he recovered, and, falling on his knees, begged hard for 

 his life, protesting his innocence until he became 

 speechless. Fairbanks told him that he had only 

 spared him on the remonstrance of Spraggs ; but that 

 if he was put in a second time, he declared he should 

 alone come out a corpse, unless he made confession. 

 Again they plunged him in, and when just upon 

 the point of suffocating, he shouted out, 'I will 

 confess !' Holding his head above the water, he 

 informed them ' that the bills were all quilted into his 

 wife's petticoat, ready for a start to Canada ; that the 

 petticoat was at that moment lying betwixt the bed 

 mattress in his wife's bedroom at home.' 



"Fairbanks watched the culprit in that solitary spot 

 until Spraggs went off to ascertain the truth of this 

 story. Eushing to the house he ascertained that Mrs. 

 Spiggleman was in the bedroom, and the door locked. 

 Smashing it open with his foot, he found the woman 

 in the act of putting on the petticoat, and everything 

 apparently prepared for a start. Forcing the garment 

 from her grasp, he rushed into the market-place of 

 Watertown, which at that time was a mere village, 

 waving the petticoat round his head and shouting, 



