Page:Man Who Laughs (Estes and Lauriat 1869) v2.djvu/99

Rh never once turning round or looking at him, with that cold tranquillity which the knowledge that one is the law imparts. In death-like silence they both crossed the yard, passed through the dark tap-room, and reached the street. A few passers-by had collected about the inn door, and the justice of the quorum was there at the head of a squad of police. The idlers, stupefied, and without uttering a word, opened out and stood aside, with true English discipline, at the sight of the constable's staff. The wapentake moved off in the direction of the narrow street then called the Little Strand, skirting the Thames; and Gwynplaine, with the justice of the quorum's men in line on each side of him like a double hedge, wrapped in his cloak as in a shroud, left the inn farther and farther behind him as he followed the silent man, like a statue following a spectre.