brain felt
dazed, and he was in a half-dreamy state, when all of a sudden he grew
wakeful and alert, for right away out over the mere he saw a faint gleam
of light which flashed upon the water and then expired.

For a moment he thought that it might have been the reflection of a
star, but it flashed out again, and then was gone.

The marsh lights always had a strange fascination for him, and this
appearance completely changed the current of his thoughts. A few
moments before and they were dull and sluggish, now they were all
excitement; and he sat there longing for the next appearance when, as of
old, he expected to see the faint light go dancing along, as a moth
dances over the moist herbage, disappearing from time to time.

He strained his eyes, but there was no light, and he was beginning to
think that it was fancy, when he heard a faint rustling apparently
outside his door; and as he listened, he felt that someone must be going
down stairs.

Then there was complete silence for a few minutes, and he was ready to
think that both the light and the sound were fancy, when all doubts were
set at rest, for the door below opened and someone passed out.

It was still very dark, in spite of a faint sign of dawn in the
north-east; but the watcher had no difficulty in making out the figure
which passed silently along in the shadow of the house, and close
beneath him, to be that of his father.

What did it mean? Dick asked himself as he sat there holding his
breath, while he watched intently, and saw his father steal from place
to place in the most secretive manner, taking advantage of bush, wall,
and outbuilding, and every now and then pausing as if gazing out across
the fen.

"I know," thought Dick, as a flash of comprehension came across his
brain. "He saw that light, and he is watching too."

The thought was quite exciting.

The reaction as depressing, for directly after he very naturally said to
himself: "My father would not get out of bed to watch a
will-o'-the-wisp."

But suppose it was not a will-o'-the-wisp, but a light!

He sat thinking and trying to trace which way his father had gone; and
as far as he could make out, he had gone right down to the nearest spot
to the water, where, about a hundred yards away, there was fair landing,
by one of the many clumps of alder.

Dick had just come to the conclusion that he ought not to watch his
father, who was angry enough with him as it was, and who would be