"
"Well, Mr. Carstairs, if you have done that," the man said, "you
have done marvels. That you should find the man might be a piece of
good luck, but that you should have learned all this about him
seems to me wonderful."
"It was a lucky accident, altogether. We saw him, watched him, and
managed to overhear a conversation from which we gathered these
facts. It was all simple enough. Of course, our idea is that we
should, if possible, catch him in the act of robbing the coach,
bind and take charge of him, saying that we should hand him over to
justice, when the coachman and passengers would, of course, appear
to testify against him. Instead of doing this, we should take him
somewhere, and then give him the option of either making a clean
breast of the whole story, and remaining in our custody until
called upon to testify to his statement in a court of justice,
whenever required; or of being handed over to the authorities, to
be tried and hung as a highwayman.
"One of our greatest difficulties is how to effect his capture. The
attack will be made at night on the coach, and in the darkness we
might shoot him, or he might get away. He is at present in London,
at a lodging in a street behind the Abbey, where, doubtless, his
real profession is altogether unsuspected by the people of the
house.
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