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her
    nerveless fingers and she felt the phaeton lurch wildly, uncontrolled, before she felt
    nothing at all.
     
    * * *
     
     
    Only a stubborn determination to have her own way, and the ability to pass
    unobserved that she had gained in the forests of her New World childhood enabled
    Sarah to reach her goal in safety.
     
    The conversation of the other passengers, overheard as the Lady Bright sailed
    into Bristol harbor, informed her that a coach carrying mail and passengers left the
    port city each day at noon, reaching London the following morning. With that
    information to guide her, it was a simple matter for Sarah to pack an inconspicuous
    bandbox with the most necessary items for her journey, muffle herself to anonymity
    in a hooded grey cloak, and slip down the Lady Bright & gangway in the bustle of
    departing passengers before Captain Challoner or any other well-meaning good
    Samaritan could stop her. Unfamiliar sounds and smells assailed her on every side,
    and at any moment Sarah expected to hear Captain Challoner’s voice raised behind
    her. She hated to deceive him – even if only by misdirection – but Sarah was quite
    certain that if the Lady Bright's captain had known of her plan to travel to London
    by the Mail he would not have allowed it.
     
    Fortunately, through the late Mrs. Kennet’s good offices Sarah was provided not
    only with a bank-draft which, Mrs. Kennet had assured her, any English bank would
    be pleased to honor, but with a small budget of English coin as well, which
    contained enough to pay the eleven-shilling coach fare with something left over.
     
    As wary as any wild creature, Sarah walked onward, and soon found that she had
    left the Bristol docks behind for a world of imposing brick warehouses whose
    construction made even the vast Baltimore wharf from which Sarah had embarked
     

 
    scant weeks before seem small and shabby. Then the warehouses gave way to a
    street of buildings jammed cheek by jowl – a street filled with vehicles of every kind
    and people of every description. Sarah pressed her hands to her cheeks in utter
    confusion. Though Mrs. Kennet had spoken of Bristol as a great city, never in her
    wildest nightmare had Colonial-bred Sarah imagined that a city could be so large, so
    noisy, and so filthy. And London, so she understood, was even larger.
     
    For a moment her resolve failed her, and Sarah wished nothing more than to flee
    back to the familiarity of the Lady Bright and let Captain Challoner determine her
    fate. But that stubborn streak of independence which, more than any other
    characteristic, had shaped Sarah Cunningham’s life so far, forbade so craven an
    action. Only boldness would serve her purpose now, so bold she would be. Sarah
    took her courage firmly in hand and approached one of the street’s inhabitants for
    directions.
     
    „If you please, sir, which way is it to the Goat and Compasses?“ she asked.
     
    The man thus hailed possessed a certain air of respectability which, on closer
    examination, had a marked taint of illusion to it. He wore a suit of plain brown cloth
    elaborately faced with purple velvet, and his sleeves were trimmed with buttons that
    resembled nothing so much as a row of large brass sovereigns.
     
    „Well, now, and what would a pretty country miss such as yourself be wanting
    with the Goat? I know a place quite near here that can answer all your wants, and a
    sweeter snuggery you’ll not find, or my name isn’t Reverend Richard Blaine!“ The
    man smiled ingratiatingly and stepped forward to take Sarah’s arm.
     
    „And no more it is!“ rumbled a deep voice from behind Sarah. She spun about to
    confront the most enormous coal-black man she had ever seen.
     
    He was at least a handspan over six feet tall, and nearly as wide. He wore no coat,
    and his workshirt bulged over a massive barrel chest. On one shoulder he carried an
    iron-bound wooden keg of the sort that usually contained spirits.
     
    „You’re no