1. MARCH THE TWENTY-THIRD. MIDDAYThirty-six hours had elapsed since Manston's escape.
It was market-day at the county-town. The farmers outside and
inside the corn-exchange looked at their samples of wheat, and
poured them critically as usual from one palm to another, but they
thought and spoke of Manston. Grocers serving behind their
counters, instead of using their constant phrase, 'The next
article, please?' substituted, 'Have you heard if he's caught?'
Dairymen and drovers standing beside the sheep and cattle pens,
spread their legs firmly, readjusted their hats, thrust their hands
into the lowest depths of their pockets, regarded the animals with
the utmost keenness of which the eye was capable, and said, 'Ay,
ay, so's: they'll have him avore night.'
Later in the day Edwar
