r
doesn't;" and there were times when he longed to speak, others when he
wished that he could forget everything about the past.

"Yow two med it up yet?" Hickathrift used to ask every time he saw
Dick; but the answer was always the same--"No."

"Ah, well, you will some day, my lad. It arn't good for boys to make
quarrels last."

There was no more warm friendship with Mr Marston, who, whenever he
came over to the Toft, was studiously polite to Dick, treating him as if
he were not one whose friendship was worth cultivating, to the lad's
great disgust, though he was too proud to show it; and the result was
that Dick's life at the Toft grew very lonely, and he was driven to seek
the companionship of John Warren and his rabbits, and of Dave with his
boat, gun, and fishing-tackle.

Then all at once there was a change. The outrages, which had ceased for
a time, broke out again furiously; and all through the winter there were
fires here and there, the very fact of a person, whether farmer or
labourer, seeming to favour the making of the drain, being enough to
make him receive an unwelcome visit from the party or parties who
opposed the scheme.

So bad did matters grow that at last people armed and prepared
themselves for the struggle which was daily growing more desperate; and
at the same time a feeling of suspicion increased so strongly that
throughout the fen every man looked upon his neighbour as an enemy.

But still the drain grew steadily in spite of the fact that Mr Marston
had been shot at twice again, and never went anywhere now without a
brace of pistols in his pocket.

One bright wintry morning John Warren came in with a long tale of woe,
and his arm in a sling.

It was the old story. He had been out with his gun to try and get a
wild-goose which he had marked down, when, just in the dusk, about
half-past four, he was suddenly startled by a shot, and received the
contents of a gun in his arm.

"But you'd got a gun," said Hickathrift, who was listening with Dick,
while Tom Tallington, who had business at the wheelwright's that
morning, stood hearing all. "Why didst na let him hev it again?"

"What's the use o' shuting at a sperrit?" grumbled John Warren.
"'Sides, I couldn't see him."

"Tchah! it warn't a sperrit," said Hickathrift contemptuously.

"Well, I don't know so much about that," grumbled John Warren. "If it
weern't a sperrit what was to mak my little dog, Snig, creep down in the
bottom of