to trouble. I wonder,
after all, if Ben got off. If I thought that he did, I'd go to his
cottage. He would hide me there until these two fellows have gone back
to their ship, and the rest have got tired of looking for me. If poor
Janet could see, I'd go home and let her alone know that I had come, and
she would hide me away. As she can't help me, poor girl! I don't know
what to do."

Such were some of Dick's meditations. Overcome with fatigue, he lay
down to rest a little, and, as was very natural, fell fast asleep. When
he awoke it was broad daylight. It would not now do to venture down to
Keyhaven. He would too probably meet some of the revenue men, who would
to a certainty capture him. Home he dared not go; his only alternative
was to remain in the forest until the return of night, when he could
traverse the country with less risk of encountering any one. He was
very hungry, but he was equally afraid of going to any cottage to beg
for a crust, lest he should be recognised. Not far off was a pool, of
which there were many in the forest, where he quenched his thirst. Hips
and haws were now ripe, there were plenty around could, he eat enough to
satisfy the cravings of hunger. There were tench, too, in some of the
pools--fine, fat fish, which he might catch, as they lay under the bank,
with his hands, but he had no means of lighting a fire to cook them. He
walked about listening, lest he might be surprised by any one coming;
then, growing weary, he again sat down under his bush. He was very
hungry and very unhappy. Sometimes he thought he would go home in spite
of the risk he would run, and try to see his mother alone. He might
easily hide in one of the out-buildings, and steal in when his father
had left the house, but then, knowing that he had been recognised by
Lord Reginald, who would, he supposed, inform against him, he feared
that he might be discovered by those who would be sent to search for
him, though his mother, he felt sure, would do her best to conceal him.

"I had better not," he said to himself; "it shall only get father and
mother into trouble; if they don't know where I am, they cannot say.
I'll go down to Susan Rudall's; she'll stow me away, if I can reach her
cottage without being seen. No one will think of looking for me there."

Dick, when on board the lugger, had been rigged out thoroughly as a
young sailor. The dress, as he thought, was a sufficient disguise,
should he meet a