s his brother wished.

They had taken the way to the downs to the south of Hurlston.

Harry enquired for their cousins, the Miss Pembertons. On hearing that
they were still living there he proposed paying them a visit.

"To tell you the truth, I have not called since we came to Texford,"
answered Algernon. "You know that they have peculiar notions. Our
father, looking upon them as puritanical dissenters, has no wish to have
them at the house. I have not seen the old ladies for some years. I
remember that they did not make a very favourable impression on me when
I met them last."

"I suppose I may call on them," said Harry. "They were kind to me when
I was a boy, and I liked cousin Mary, as we called her."

"Yes, there can be no objection to your going," answered Algernon.
"They will not consider it necessary to return your visit, and will look
upon it as a kindness."

The young men had been riding on further than they had intended, and
being engaged in conversation while passing along lanes with high hedges
on either side, they had not observed a storm gathering in the sky.
Emerging from the lanes Harry invited his brother to take a gallop
across the wide extended downs spread out before them, and thus they did
not observe till they turned the thunder clouds sweeping up rapidly
towards them.

"We shall get wet jackets, I suspect, before we reach home," observed
Harry.

"I hope not," answered his brother, "for I have been especially charged
to avoid the damp and cold, and I feel somewhat heated. I wish there
was some place where we could get shelter."

"I am very sorry that I led you on, for I see no shed or cottage
anywhere," said Harry, gazing round; "and I am afraid we shall have the
rain down upon us before many minutes. Our shortest way to the nearest
house at Hurlston will, I suspect, be across the downs. Come along,
there is no time to spare."

They put their horses into a gallop. The downs though at a distance
appearing to be level, were intercepted by several deep ravines, and the
young men had not gone far before they were compelled to turn inland by
coming to one of the most rugged and wild of these ravines, the side of
which was too steep to allow them to ride down it.

A little further Harry observed a place which he thought they could
descend without difficulty, and thus save some distance. As he reached
the bottom, followed by Algernon, he saw nestling under a rock on one
side a hu