much inclined to disobey his father before, as
he slowly took his place in the bottom of the punt, while Hickathrift
sent it forward so quickly that it was the first to touch the gravelly
shore. When the squire sprang out Hickathrift followed him, after
driving down the pole and securing the boat.

"I say, Tom," said Dick.

"I say, Dick," replied Tom.

"Do you think he would be very cross if we went after them? I do want
to see."

Tom shook his head, and, landing, sat down on the edge of the boat, Dick
following and seating himself beside his companion, to watch his father
steadily approach the hut, of which not so much as a glimpse could be
obtained, so closely was it hidden among the trees.

By this time the squire was half-way to the fir-wood, and Dick could
bear it no longer.

"How could I meet mother," he cried angrily, "if I let him go alone like
that?"

"But he can't be shot," said Tom.

"No, but he may be hurt," retorted Dick; and he ran eagerly after his
father.

"And so may my father be hurt," said Tom as soon as he was left alone;
and he looked in the direction by which Farmer Tallington must approach
the wood, but no one was visible there, and he ran rapidly after his
companion and rejoined him just as he was following his father into the
wood.

The morning sun shone brilliantly without, but as soon as they were in
the wood they seemed to have entered upon a dusky twilight, cut here and
there by brilliant shafts and bands which struck the ground in places
and made broad patches of golden hue.

No word was spoken, and in the dim wood with the rustling increasing,
the scene in some way suggested to Dick the fen during the night when he
was listening to the passing of the punt--evidently Dave's--and he fell
a-wondering whether the decoy-man was now far away on the other side of
the mere.

"That you, squire?" shouted Farmer Tallington from the trees beyond the
hut, which now appeared before them, sombre and gloomy, half hidden by
the growth.

"Yes, we are here," was the reply.

"He's in here some'ere's, for his poont's ashore."

"Where are you?" came from the other side, and, guided by the voices,
Marston soon came up, with his men.

The squire gave a short sharp order, and the two parties separated, so
as to surround the little hut. Tom whispered to Dick what he was
already thinking.

"Why, Dick, old Dave's as cunning as a rat, and could slip through there
easy."

The moment the pl