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the lady loose was for Tom to climb over her and then push from the inside while the driver pulled from the outside. It didn't seem to be an easy job for Tom to climb over her, but he managed to do it, though she screamed a little when his boots sunk into her shoulders. Then I heard him say, 'Now, driver, while you pull I'll try running the length of the corridor and bumping her. The shock may loosen her if you pull just as I bump.' I don't know how the Fat Woman liked it, but she held her tongue, and after a while something gave way, and she suddenly shot out into the road, falling on the driver, and making him think his last end had come. When he got himself free, and he and Tom together had set the Fat Woman on her legs again, I heard him say: 'I'll have to be after charging you, sor, for a suit of clothes, being as my own is spoilt entirely, and my left arm is sprained.' But Tom told him to hurry up and help boost the Fat Woman into the carriage, and he'd see that everything was made right when the time came to pay.

"He pulled his level best."

"You may ask why I didn't interfere about this time and keep the woman from running away. Because I knew just what her weight was, and how much the bottom of an ordinary carriage will bear, and I wanted to see how the thing would end.

"Well, it ended just as I knew it would. It was the middle of summer, and daylight began about three o'clock, so Tom was in a hurry to get away before anybody would see him and recognise him or his companion. He and the driver gave the Fat Woman a most everlasting boost and shot her into the carriage, and Tom was going to get in after her when I heard something crack, and the Fat Woman gave a dismal yell. She had gone clean through the bottom of the carriage, and was standing with her feet on the road, with the broken pieces of the flooring holding her so tight that she couldn't stir. She gave up all pretence of keeping quiet, and called out at the top of her voice for the driver to hold the horses and keep the carriage from moving; and she begged Tom, if he had any love for her, to help her out of the carriage, and let her get into her own room once more.

"The fact is, the woman was in a very bad fix. The splinters must have hurt her like so many knives, and the more Tom tried to pull away the broken boards, the more they got their work on. Then all of a sudden the horses took it into their heads to start, and the woman yelled that they were killing her, and the driver must cut them loose instantly.

"By the time the horses were unhitched Tom had given up the attempt to get the woman loose as a bad job, and was standing in a helpless sort of way by the carriage door, telling her for Heaven's sake to hold her tongue before she waked up the whole neighbourhood.

"I judged it was about time for me to take a hand in the proceedings, so I called out of the window, 'Melinda! If you've had enough of thishyer foolishness, just say the word, and I'll come down with an axe and help you out of your fix.' She said all she wanted was to be let loose, and she would never try to leave me again, not for any man, let alone a cruel, heartless wretch that would