been down to see an old
friend, Peter Purkiss, and that's true for the most part, and that you
are going home again to your father and mother. Now, lad, it's time to
be off. I'll put you in the way out of the town, and when once you are
in the country strike away north-east. You've got Dartmoor to cross,
and as it's a wildish tract, I'd advise you to get a lift if you can
until you are over it. If you can't get a lift, don't attempt to cross
it at night, or you may lose yourself."

Peter, who was a good-natured old fellow, though his morality was not of
the strictest order, gave Dick a hearty supper, then, taking a thick
stick in hand, started off with him, walking at a rapid pace until they
reached the confines of Plymouth--a much smaller town in those days than
it is at present. Dick then, having received directions from the old
man as to the road he was to take, commenced what he had made up his
mind would be a long tramp homewards.

He was strong and active, and had not been long enough at sea to lose
his shore legs. The night being clear, he was able to see the road, and
he knew by the position of the Great Bear, which he always kept on his
left hand, that he was going in the right direction. The dread he felt
of being overtaken by a pressgang, or by the seamen of his own ship,
whom he thought might be sent in pursuit, made him walk all the faster.
It was with difficulty indeed at first that he restrained himself from
breaking into a run; but he guessed rightly that he would thus be more
likely to be stopped by any one who might meet him, and he restrained
himself, continuing on only at a rapid walk. Every now and then,
however, he turned his head over his shoulder, fancying that he heard
footsteps, expecting to find himself seized and carried back to be
ignominiously flogged--a fate he well knew would be in store for him,
should he be caught. He was not, however, very well contented with
himself. He was perfectly aware of the light in which the crime of
desertion was regarded; and that he was abandoning all hopes of rising
in the service, for which he had always had a liking, notwithstanding
the way Ben had abused it. He had sufficient discernment to distinguish
the good, true-hearted seamen from the bad, and he had observed that the
former were well treated and looked on with respect by their officers.
Then the recollection of the way Lord Reginald and Toady Voules had
behaved to him would occur. "I