or his arm. His sobs ceased, his face
lighted up again; he drew out of his pocket his one dearest treasure,
from which night or day he was never separated, his pocket-knife, and,
propping the bench lengthways slanting against the wall like a ladder,
he managed to fix it pretty securely by scooping out a little hollow in
the roughly-boarded floor, so as to catch the end of the bench and
prevent its slipping down. And just as Superintendent Boyds was stepping
into Squire Bartlemore's study to wait for that gentleman's appearance,
a pair of bright eyes in a round sunburnt face might have been seen
spying the land from the small window high up in the wall of the lock-up
room of the police office. Spying it to good purpose, as will soon be
seen, though in the meantime I think it will be well to return to Duke
and Pamela all alone in the copse.

Tim had not been gone five minutes before they began to wonder when he
would be back again. They sat quite still, however, for perhaps a
quarter of an hour, for they were just a little frightened at finding
themselves really alone. If Tim had turned back again I don't think he
would have had much difficulty in persuading them to go with him, even
to the dreadful police! But Tim never thought of turning back; he had
too thoroughly taken the little people at their word.

After a while they grew so tired of waiting quietly that they jumped up
and began to run about. Once or twice they were scared by the sounds of
footsteps or voices at a little distance, but nobody came actually
through the copse, and they soon grew more assured, and left off
speaking in whispers and peeping timidly over their shoulders. At last,
"Sister," said Duke, "don't you think us might go just a teeny weeny bit
out of the wood, to watch if us can't see Tim coming down the road? I
know which side he went."

"Us promised to stay here, didn't us?" replied Pamela.

"Yes; but us _would_ be staying here," said Duke insinuatingly. "It's
just to peep, you know, to see if Tim's coming. He'd be very glad, for
p'raps he'll not be quite sure where to find us again, and if us goes a
little way along the road he'd see us quicker, and if us can't see him
us can come back here again."

"Very well," said Pamela, and, hand in hand, the two made their way out
of the shelter of the trees and trotted half timidly a little way along
the road. It felt fresh and bright after the shady wood; some way before
them they saw rows of hous