ime for his cowardice. With all his scrapes and
dilemmas, he had never been reduced to this sort of hiding.

And his pursuer had struck into the wood after him, passed straight
through it, though with some little doubt and difficulty, and was already
by the river-side, getting there just as Lord Hartledon was passing in
his skiff. Long as this may have seemed in telling, it took only a short
time to accomplish; still Lord Hartledon had not made quick way, or he
would have been further on his course in the race.

Would the sun ever set?--daylight ever pass? Val thought _not_, in his
impatience; and he ventured out of his shelter very soon, and saw for his
reward--the long coat and red whiskers by the river-side, their owner
conversing with a man. Val went further away, keeping the direction of
the stream: the brushwood might no longer be safe. He did not think they
had seen him: the man he dreaded had his back to him, the other his face.
And that other was Pike.

CHAPTER IX.

WAITING FOR DINNER.

Dinner at Hartledon had been ordered for seven o'clock. It was beyond
that hour when Dr. Ashton arrived, for he had been detained--a
clergyman's time is not always under his own control. Anne and Arthur
were with him, but not Mrs. Ashton. He came in, ready with an apology for
his tardiness, but found he need not offer it; neither Lord Hartledon nor
his brother having yet appeared.

"Hartledon and that boy Carteret have not returned home yet," said the
countess-dowager, in her fiercest tones, for she liked her dinner more
than any other earthly thing, and could not brook being kept waiting for
it. "And when they do come, they'll keep us another half-hour dressing."

"I beg your ladyship's pardon--they have come," interposed Captain
Dawkes. "Carteret was going into his room as I came out of mine."

"Time they were," grumbled the dowager. "They were not in five minutes
ago, for I sent to ask."

"Which of the two won the race?" inquired Lady Maude of Captain Dawkes.

"I don't think Carteret did," he replied, laughing. "He seemed as sulky
as a bear, and growled out that there had been no race, for Hartledon had
played him a trick."

"What did he mean?"

"Goodness knows."

"I hope Hartledon upset him," charitably interrupted the dowager. "A
ducking would do that boy good; he is too forward by half."

There was more waiting. The countess-dowager flounced about in her pink
satin gown; but it did not bring the lo