e woman. "You're cowards, both of you. Are
there no corries in the hills to hide him in--no ropes to tie him with--
that you should find it so difficult to keep a brat quiet for a week or
two?"

A gleam of intelligence shot across the ill-favoured face of the gypsy.

"Ha! you're a wise woman. Come, out with your plan, and see if I'm not
game to do it."

"There's no plan worth speakin' of," rejoined the woman, somewhat
mollified by her companion's complimentary remarks. "All you've to do
is to go down the road to-morrow, catch him, and bring him to me. I'll
see to it that he don't make his voice heard until we've done with this
part of the country. Then we can slip the knot, and let the brat go
free."

"I'll do it!" said the man, sitting down on a stone and beginning to
fill his pipe.

"I thought he was dead!" said the woman.

"So did I; but he's not dead yet, an' don't look as if he'd die soon."

"Maybe," said the woman, "he won't remember ye. It's full five year now
sin' he was took away."

"Won't he?" retorted the man, with an angry look, which did not tend to
improve his disagreeable visage. "Hah! I heerd him say he'd know me if
he saw me in a crowd o' ten thousand. I would ha' throttled the cub
then and there, but the place was too public."

A short silence ensued, during which the gypsies ate their food with the
zest of half-starved wolves.

"You'd better go down and see old Moggy," suggested the woman, when the
man had finished his repast and resumed his pipe. "If the brat escapes
you to-morrow, it may be as well to let the old jade know that you'll
murder both him and her, if he dares to blab."

The man shook his head. "No use!" said he. But the woman repeated her
advice in a tone that was equivalent to a command, so the man rose up
sulkily and went.

He was not a little surprised, on drawing near to the hut, to find it in
a state of bustle, and apparently in possession of the Sudberrys. Not
daring to show himself; he slunk back to his encampment, and informed
his female companion of what he had seen.

"All the more reason to make sure work of him on the road to-morrow!"
said she, with a dark frown.

"So I mean to!" replied the man doggedly. With these amiable sentiments
and intentions animating their breasts, this pair crept into their booth
and went to rest in the bosom of their family.

STORY ONE, CHAPTER 20.

MYSTERIOUS MATTERS--A HAPPY RETURN, ETCETERA.

The morning