mach the affront. But I was not yet seasoned to petty
slights, and in my bitterness of spirit I sat down on the grassy
bank and for a while gave the rein to my feelings, brooding moodily
on my wrongs. Then I chanced to spy the coin which he had flung to
me as a man might fling a bone to a dog. I picked it up: it was a
crown piece. For a moment I was tempted to pitch it into the brook;
but on a sudden impulse I bestowed it in a little inner pocket
apart from the rest of my money.

"There it is, Dick Cludde," I muttered between my teeth, "and there
it shall remain until the day when I return it you, with interest."

After that I felt more composed, and walked on with a lightened
heart.

Chapter 8: I Fall Among Thieves.

For some time past the sky had been clouding over, and the wind
blowing up with a threat of rain. Before long it began to fall in a
steady drizzle, and I saw that if I would not be drenched to the
skin I must renounce my purpose of completing thirty miles, and
seek a shelter for the night. Coming to a small hamlet of two or
three cottages, I inquired of a laboring man whom I saw entering
one, how far I must go to find an inn. He told me that there was
one a mile or so on, just before coming to Morville, and thanking
him, I hastened on my way.

But before I had gone a mile I espied a ruined barn in a field by
the roadside, and being already tired and little inclined to
encounter strangers, I turned into it to see if it would afford me
sufficient protection against the weather. The interior was cosier
than the outward aspect promised, and finding a quantity of clean
hay at one end, I stripped off my coat, set down my knapsack for a
pillow, and, rolling myself in the hay, was soon fast asleep.

I was roused while it was still dark by the sound of voices. Being
wide awake in an instant, I had sufficient presence of mind to
avoid betraying my whereabouts by a rustling among the hay, and lay
and listened, wondering who the intruders might be, and fearing
lest they should approach my end of the barn to seek a couch for
the remainder of the night. But they made no movement in my
direction, and before many minutes had passed I understood by their
voices that they were three, and gathered from their talk that they
were poachers who had been plying their stealthy trade in the
coverts of a neighboring park, and had turned into the barn, which
they evidently knew well, for a brief rest before making for t