Horace admired this story immensely, and set John Tame with his other
heroes--Raffles and Robin Hood--forthwith.
Then came the hunt for Lycett's Farm, where Collins's people now lived, of
which they knew no more than that Lechlade was the postal address. It might
be this side of Lechlade, and it might be far on the other. Collins had had
the map placed before her, but could make nothing of it. (Cooks never can
read maps.)
After about two miles out of Fairford Robert began to ask. There were no
people on the road--indeed, one of the things that they had noticed
throughout their travels was how few persons were to be met; and they had
therefore to knock at a door here and there, or approach labourers in the
fields. Their ignorance of the name either of Lycett's or of Collins was
amazing.
"Never heard tell of such a place," said one.
"Not hereabouts," said another.
"Collins?" said a third. "There's a stone-mason of that name over at
Highworth; but I don't know of no farmer."
"Maybe you're thinking of Sadler's," another suggested.
Robert, who was getting testy, asked why. "Sadler's doesn't sound a bit
either like Collins or Lycett's," he said.
"No," the man agreed, "it doesn't.
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