ly.

"A good-for-nothing vagabond he is!" said the very unprofessional
magistrate.

"We rather hope," said Dick, turning very red, "he'll get let off."

"Eh? what? Do you know, you young scamp, I can-- So you want him let
off, do you? How's that?"

"Because he didn't take the boat away," said Dick, avoiding the horror-
struck eyes of his "Firm."

"We--that is I--let it go."

"What do you say?" said the Squire, putting down his knife and fork and
sitting back in his chair.

Whereupon Dick, as much to stave off the expected storm as to justify
himself, proceeded to give a true, though agitated, story of his and
Georgie's adventures on the day of the Grandcourt match, appealing to
Georgie at every stage in the narration to corroborate him. Which
Georgie did, almost noisily.

The magistrate heard it all out in silence, with a face gradually
becoming serious.

"Do you know what you can get for doing it?" he asked.

Dick's face grew graver and graver.

"Shall we be transported?" he asked, with a quaver in his voice.

The magistrate took a hurried gulp from the tumbler before him.

"You've put me in a fix, my man. You'd no business to get round me to
prevent me doing my duty."

"I really didn't mean to do that," put in Dick.

"No--we wouldn't do such a thing," said Georgie.

"Well, never mind that. Whatever Tom White did to you, you'd no right
to do what you did. You've put me in a fix, I say. Take my advice and
write to your father, and tell him all about it, and get him to come
down. If Tom White's partners and the pawnbroker get their money, they
may stop the case, and there'll be an end of it. If they don't, Tom
must take his chance. Dear, dear, things have changed in Templeton
since my day. Confound it, I wish the Harriers would choose some other
run! A nice fix I'm in, to be sure--young rascals!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Late that evening a crowd assembled in the Quadrangle of Templeton. The
hunt had been in three hours ago, and all the hounds but three had
turned up and gone to their kennels. It was to welcome the remaining
three that the crowd was assembled. They had already been signalled
from the beach, and the faint hum in the High Street told that they had
already got into their last run.

Nearer and louder grew the sound, till the hum became a shout, and the
shout a roar, as through the great gate of Templeton three small trav