When he stopped to listen, all was at once still, but the moment he moved onward he again heard stealthy steps behind.

He retired to rest as soon as he reached his house, to be wakened presently by a slight noise at the window, whence the flag-post protruded.

It had been but a gust of wind, he decided, and turned round to go to sleep again, when crash! the post was plucked from its place and cast to the ground.
The dominie sprang out of bed, and while feeling for a light, thought he heard scurrying feet, but when he looked out at the window no one was to be seen; _Vivat Regina_ lay ignobly in the gutters.

That it could have been the object of an intended theft was not probable, but the open window might have tempted thieves, and there was a possible though risky way up by the spout.

The affair was a good deal talked about at the time, but it remained shrouded in a mystery which even we have been unable to penetrate.
On the heels of the Queen's birthday came the Muckley, the one that was to be known to fame, if fame was willing to listen to Corp, as Tommy's Muckley.