That unfortunate son of yours is not hurt, but I don't know but that the best thing that could have happened would have been for him to have got a bullet through his head.

He brought home with him two men who are, I have little doubt, highwaymen; anyhow, they each had a brace of pistols in their belt, and from what he said I think they have been stopping a coach.

At any rate, they have something with them that they were going to hide here, and I fancy it is not the first time that it has been done.

I don't expect your son had anything to do with the robbery, though he was carrying a brace of pistols, too; however, we have got them all three.
"Now, you see, Bastow, this takes the affair altogether out of our hands.

I had hoped that when we caught your son in the act of breaking into your house after you had ordered him from it, we should be able to frighten him into enlisting, or, at any rate, into promising to disturb you no more, for even if we had taken him before the bench, nothing could have been done to him, for under such circumstances his re-entering the house could not be looked upon as an act of burglary.