could see Mrs Cottier, sitting on the floor, with her back against the
wheel of her trap, which had been dragged inside to be out of the
snow. I hitched old Greylegs to one of the iron bolts, which had once
held a door-hinge, and ran to her to make sure that she was unhurt.

"How in the world did you get here?" I asked. "Are you sure you're not
hurt?"

She laughed a little at this, and I got out my stores, and we made our
supper by the fire. "Where's old Nigger?" I asked her; for I was
puzzled by seeing no horse.

"Oh, Jim," she said, "I've had such adventures."

When she had eaten a little she told me her story.

"I was coming home from Salcombe," she said, "and I was driving fast,
so as to get home before the snow lay deep. Just outside South pool,
Nigger cast a shoe, and I was kept waiting at the forge for nearly
half an hour. After that, the snow was so bad that I could not get
along. It grew dark when I was only a mile or two from the
blacksmith's, and I began to fear that I should never get
home. However, as I drove through Stokenham, the weather seemed to
clear a little, so I hurried Nigger all I could, hoping to get home in
the lull. When I got to within a hundred yards from here, in the
little hollow, where the stunted ashes are, I found myself among a
troop of horsemen, who stopped me, and asked me a lot of
questions. They were all disguised, and they had lanterns among them,
and I could see that the horses carried tubs; I suppose full of
smuggled lace and brandy and tobacco, ready to be carried inland. Jim,