For instance, at full speed across a meadow, a hollow would suddenly
present itself, and to an accustomed eye the moonlight might enable it
to be distinguished at a glance what it was, while to one wholly
unaccustomed to it, the hollow would often look like a hillock by such a
light. This Varney would clear at a bound, which a less agile and
heavier person would step into, lifting up his leg to meet an
impediment, when he would find it come down suddenly some six or eight
inches lower than he anticipated, almost dislocating his leg and neck,
and producing a corresponding loss of breath, which was not regained by
the muttered curse upon such a country where the places were so uneven. Having come to one of these places, which was a little more perceptible
than the others, he made a desperate jump, but he jumped into the middle
of the hole with such force that he sprained his ankle, besides sinking
into a small pond that was almost dry, being overgrown with rushes and
aquatic plants. "Well?" said the other officer coming up--"well?" "Well, indeed!" said the one who came first; "it's anything but well. D--n all country excursions say I." "Why, Bob, you don't mean to say as how you are caught in a rat-trap?" "Oh, you be d----d! I am, ain't I?" "Yes; but are you going to stop there, or coming out, eh? You'll catch
cold." "I have sprained my ankle." "Well?" "It ain't well, I tell you; here have I a sprained foot, and my wind
broken for a month at least. Why were you not quicker? If you had been
sharper we should have had the gentleman, I'll swear!" "I tumbled down over the chair, and he got out of the window, and I come
out of the door." "Well, I got entangled in the reins; but I got off after him, only his
long legs carried him over everything. I tell you what, Wilkinson, if I
were to be born again, and intended to be a runner, I would bespeak a
pair of long legs." "Why?" "Because I should be able to get along better. You have no idea of how
he skimmed along the ground; it was quite beautiful, only it wasn't good
to follow it." "A regular sky scraper!" "Yes, or something of that sort; he looked like a patent flying shadow." "Well, get up and lead the way; we'll follow you." "I dare say you will--when I lead the way back there; for as to going
out yonder, it is quite out of the question. I want supper to-night and
breakfast to-morrow morning." "Well, what has that to do with it?" "Just this much: if you follow any farther, you'll get into the woods,
and there you'll be, going round and round, like a squirrel in a cage,
without being able to get out, and you will there get none of the good
things included under the head of those meals." "I think so too," said the third. "Well, then, let's go back; we needn't run, though it might be as well
to do so." "It would be anything but well. I don't gallop back, depend upon it." The three men now slowly returned from their useless chase, and re-trod
the way they had passed once in such a hurry that they could hardly
recognize it. "What a dreadful bump I came against that pole standing there," said
one. "Yes, and I came against a hedge-stake, that was placed so as the moon
didn't show any light on it. It came into the pit of my stomach. I never
recollect such a pain in my life; for all the world like a hot coal
being suddenly and forcibly intruded into your stomach." "Well, here's the road. I must go up to the house where I started him
from. I promised them some explanation. I may as well go and give it to
them at once." "Do as you will. I will wait with the horse, else, perhaps, that
Beauchamp will again return and steal him." The officer who had first entered the house now returned to the
Bannerworths, saying,

"I promised you I would give you some explanation as to what you have
witnessed." "Yes," said Henry; "we have been awaiting your return with some anxiety
and curiosity. What is the meaning of all this? I am, as we are all, in
perfect ignorance of the meaning of what took place." "I will tell you. The person whom you have had here, and goes by the
name of Varney, is named Francis Beauchamp." "Indeed! Are you assured of this?" "Yes, perfectly assured of it; I have it in my warrant to apprehend him
by either name." "What crime had he been guilty of?" "I will tell you: he has been _hanged_." "Hanged!" exclaimed all present. "What do you mean by that?" added Henry; "I am at a loss to understand
what you can mean by saying he was hanged." "What I say is literally true." "Pray tell us all about it. We are much interested in the fact; go on,
sir." "Well, sir, then I believe it was for murder that Francis Beauchamp was
hanged--yes, hanged; a common execution, before a multitude of people,
collected to witness such an exhibition." "Good God!" exclaimed Henry Bannerworth. "And was--but that is
impossible. A dead man come to life again! You must be amusing yourself
at our expense." "Not I," replied the officer. "Here is my warrant; they don't make these
out in a joke." And, as he spoke, he produced the warrant, when it was evident the
officer spoke the truth. "How was this?" "I will tell you, sir. You see that this Varney was a regular scamp,
gamester, rogue, and murderer. He was hanged, and hung about the usual
time; he was cut down and the body was given to some one for dissection,
when a surgeon, with the hangman, one Montgomery, succeeded in restoring
the criminal to life." "But I always thought they broke the neck when they were hanged; the
weight of the body would alone do that." "Oh, dear, no, sir," said the officer; "that is one of the common every
day mistakes; they don't break the neck once in twenty times." "Indeed!" "No; they die of suffocation only; this man, Beauchamp, was hanged thus,
but they contrived to restore him, and then he assumed a new name, and
left London." "But how came you to know all this?" "Oh! it came to us, as many things usually do, in a very extraordinary
manner, and in a manner that appears most singular and out of the way;
but such it was. "The executioner who was the means of his being restored, or one of
them, wished to turn him to account, and used to draw a yearly sum of
money from him, as hush money, to induce them to keep the secret; else,
the fact of his having escaped punishment would subject him to a
repetition of the same punishment; when, of course, a little more care
would be taken that he did not escape a second time." "I dare say not." "Well, you see, Varney, or rather Beauchamp, was to pay a heavy sum to
this man to keep him quiet, and to permit him to enjoy the life he had
so strangely become possessed of." "I see," said Holland. "Well, this man, Montgomery, had always some kind of suspicion that
Varney would murder him." "Murder him! and be the means of saving his life; surely he could not be
so bad as that."