more
suspicious still if he again caught him at the window dressed, and he
was about to close it, after wondering whether anyone would be on the
water with a light--Dave, for instance--and if so, what form of fowling
or netting it would be, when there was a low hiss--such a sound as is
made by a snake--just beneath his window.

"Dick!"

"Hallo!"

"Couldn't come before. Ready?"

"No," said Dick shortly, for the plan to run away seemed now to belong
to some project of the past.

"I couldn't come before," whispered Tom. "I was all ready, but father
did not go to bed for ever so long; and when at last I thought it was
all right, and was ready to start, I heard him go down and open the
back-door."

"And go out?" whispered Dick.

"Yes. How did you know?"

"I didn't know, but my father has done just the same."

"Oh!"

"Did yours come back?"

"No," said Tom; "and I daren't start for ever so long. But I've come
now, so let's start off quick."

"Which way did your father go?"

"I don't know, but we're wasting time."

"Did he take the boat?"

"How should I know? I didn't see him go. I only heard. Come, are you
ready?"

"No," said Dick hoarsely, and not prepared to tell his companion that he
had repented. "How can we go now with them both somewhere about? They
would be sure to catch us and bring us back."

It was a subterfuge, and Dick's face turned scarlet, as he knew by the
burning sensation. The next instant he had felt so ashamed of his
paltry excuse that he blurted out:

"I sha'n't go. I'm sorry I said I would. It's cowardly, but I don't
mean to go--there!"

The hot tears of vexation and misery stood in his eyes as he made this
confession, and rose up prepared to resent his companion's reproaches
with angry words; but he was disarmed, for Tom whispered hastily:

"Oh, Dick, I am so glad! I wouldn't show the white feather and play
sneak, but I didn't want to go. It seemed too bad to mother and father.
But you mean it?"

"Yes, I mean it!" said Dick, with a load off his breast. "I felt that
it would be like running away because we were afraid to face a charge."

"Hooray!" cried Tom in a whisper. "I say, Dick, don't think me a
coward, but I am so glad! I say, shall I go back now?"

"No; stop a bit," whispered Dick, with his heart beating, and a strange
suspicion making its way into his breast. For in an incoherent vague
manner he found himself thinking of Farmer Tallington stealin