There was a leathern girdle
about the waist, and one hand was slightly raised, as if it had held a
staff or spear, but no remains of these were to be seen. Probably the
head had once been covered, but it was bare now, and a quantity of long
shaggy hair still clung to the dark-brown skin, the face being half
covered by a beard; and, in spite of the brown-black leathery aspect of
the face, and the contracted skin, it did not seem half so horrible as
might have been supposed.

"Why, boys," said Mr Marston after a long examination, "this might be
the body of someone who lived as long back as the date when that old
galley was in use."

"So long back as that!" cried Dick, looking curiously at the strange
figure, whose head was fully six feet below the surface of the bog.

"Got a-walking across in the dark, and sinked in," said Bargle gruffly.

That might or might not have been the case. At any rate there was the
body of a man in a wonderful state of preservation, kept from decay by
the action of the peat; and, judging from the clothing, the body must
have been in its position there for many hundred years.

"What's got to be done now?" said Bargle. "We want to get on."

Mr Marston gave prompt orders, which resulted in a shallow grave being
dug in the peat about fifty yards from where the drain was being cut,
and in this the strange figure was carefully laid, ready for exhumation
by any naturalist who should wish to investigate farther; and after this
was done, and a careful search made for remains of weapons or coins, the
cutting of the drain progressed; till, after an enjoyable day with the
engineer, the boys said good-bye, and tried to escape without having to
shake hands with Bargle.

But this was not to be. The big fellow waylaid them, smiling and
holding out his hand to Dick for a farewell grip, and a declaration that
they were mates.

About half-way back, and just as it was growing toward sundown, they
were met by Hickathrift, who came up smiling, and looking like a Bargle
carefully smoothed down.

"Thought I'd see you safe back," said Hickathrift so seriously that a
feeling of nervousness which had not before existed made the boys glance
round and look suspiciously at a reed-bed on one side and a patch of
alders on the other.

"What are you talking like that for?" cried Dick angrily; "just as if we
couldn't walk along here and be quite safe! What is there to mind?"

The wheelwright shook his head and