



Produced by Chris Whitehead and the Online Distributed
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  THE HIGH TOBY




  BY THE SAME AUTHOR


  GALLOPING DICK
  CAPTAIN FORTUNE
  SKIRTS OF HAPPY CHANCE
  THE ADVENTURERS
  TWISTED EGLANTINE




  [Illustration: BUT, BEING BY THE DOOR, HE SWEPT IT OPEN WITH A
   MOVEMENT, AND BACKED INTO THE PASSAGE

     PAGE 292]




  THE HIGH TOBY


  BEING FURTHER CHAPTERS IN THE LIFE AND
  FORTUNES OF DICK RYDER, OTHERWISE
  GALLOPING DICK, SOMETIME
  GENTLEMAN OF THE
  ROAD


  BY
  H. B. MARRIOTT WATSON
  AUTHOR OF "TWISTED EGLANTINE"




  WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY CLAUDE SHEPPERSON




  METHUEN & CO.
  36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
  LONDON




  _First Published in 1906_




     To J. M. BARRIE

 MY DEAR BARRIE,--It is all but twenty years since we were first
 acquainted, for if we live till the spring of 1908, our friendship
 will have reached its majority. Of those far-off days I cherish, as
 I believe you do, a grateful memory. How many problems had we to
 discuss, how many ideals had we to satisfy, and how much ambition
 had we to fulfil! I think you, at least, have gone far to fulfil all
 yours, who have written your name indelibly in the literature of our
 generation. That name I am, after the long lapse of years, prefixing
 to this book of stories, in the hope that they will interest you, and
 as a testimony to the enduring quality of our friendship.

     Yours always,

         H. B. MARRIOTT WATSON.

   _January 1906_




  CONTENTS


                                  PAGE

  UNDER THE MOON                     1

  THE DRAPER'S NIECE                26

  MISS AND MY LADY                  52

  THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE            80

  THE ATTACK ON THE CHAISE         121

  THE GENTLEMANLY HABERDASHER      149

  THE MAN IN BLACK                 174

  THE LADY IN THE COACH            197

  THE TURTLE-DOVES                 232

  MY LADY'S RING                   257

  GALLOWS GATE                     281




THE HIGH TOBY




UNDER THE MOON


I ever had the name of one that kept to himself, nor was bedfellow to
none upon the high toby. 'Tis true enough that I have mixed in one
or two affairs with others of my kidney, but these were mainly in my
heady youth and when I was raw upon the pad, and the issues for the
more part were against me. For one, there was that business with Creech
about the King's treasure chests, the which came near to hanging of
us all through that toad, Timothy Grubbe. Indeed, I have never cared
to participate in any act that was not of my own devising, and there
was none on the road that I would ha' pinned my faith on--no, not even
old Jeremy Starbottle, that was hanged afore my time. For this reason
it was that I was used to avoid the Portsmouth Road, which, being so
greatly traversed, and so set with wastes and wilds, was pretty much
in favour with our gentry. I was often in the West, where my chief
quarry lay, or the North Road was that on which I beat; but, Lord!
there was no point nor parcel of these shires that knew me not at
one time or another, and I warrant I kept the officers all over the
country a-jigging. Yet I was once took for an affair near Petersfield,
and swore not to touch that road again, but to leave it to the scurvy
tiddlers that hold it. I came back, however, once after, and that was
upon a late December night, and when the moon was shining and the sky
alight and glistening.

I had rode across from Alton with two bottles of good wine under
my jacket, and a pocket of gold guineas, and I was trotting across
Witley Common whistling of an air, very merry, and with no thought
but to come by town the easier, lying maybe by Guildford that night
in a cosy private tavern that I knew. Some imp of mischief shook me
up and