Now, in this piece of waste ground, there was, at that time, an enclosure belonging to some wheelwright who contracted with the Post Office for the purchase of old, worn-out mail coaches; and my uncle, being very fond of coaches, old, young, or middle-aged, all at once took it into his head to step out of his road for no other purpose than to peep between the palings at these mails--about a dozen of which he remembered to have seen, crowded together in a very forlorn and dismantled state, inside.
'Gentlemen, my uncle used to SAY that he thought all this at the time, but I rather suspect he learned it out of some book afterwards, for he distinctly stated that he fell into a kind of doze, as he sat on the old axle-tree looking at the decayed mail coaches, and that he was suddenly awakened by some deep church bell striking two.
'Why, a native Englishman is put to it every night of his life, to save his life from them
Mails,' argued the first old man; 'and he knows when they're a coming round the corner, to tear him limb from limb.
"Money will buy most things, nowadays, sir," he observed, "but if it isn't fit for our mail boat, it certainly isn't fit for anything else that can come into Harwich Harbour.
"By the way," he said, "as it is such a wild night, you will oblige me very much if you will tell the engine-driver that there will be a five pound note for himself and his companion if we catch the mail. Inspector!"
The Dover mail was in its usual genial position that the guard suspected the passengers, the passengers suspected one another and the guard, they all suspected everybody else, and the coachman was sure of nothing but the horses; as to which cattle he could with a clear conscience have taken his oath on the two Testaments that they were not fit for the journey.
Once more, the Dover mail struggled on, with the jack-boots of its passengers squashing along by its side.
I guess you'll be glad to git out of this, with all them
mail bags jamming round you."
I bet five hundred that sixty days from now I pull up at the Tivoli door with the Dyea
mail."
Eden, that we'll
mail you the check to- morrow?" Mr.
"The Bombay
Mail," says Captain Hodgson, and looks at his watch.
For all you know, the next
mail may bring a letter from him.
The first San Francisco newspaper to which I
mailed it never acknowledged receipt of the manuscript, but held on to it.
I have waited for
mail after
mail, in the hope of being able to send you some good news at last.
Maturin's advertisement Daily
Mail might suit you earnestly beg try will speak if necessary "
