arks before. I've two against me already."

"Oh, don't get any more. I want to go for a walk."

"A walk!" I exclaimed. "You'll never be allowed!"

"But we might slip out just for a few minutes; it's awful never to get
out."

It _was_ awful; but the risk. However, I had promised to back him up,
and so I said where he went I would go.

"If it was only to climb one tree, or see just one bird on the bushes,"
he said, almost pathetically. "But I say, ain't you getting cold?"

I was not, I protested, and for a long time more we continued talking.
Then at last the creaking of a board, or the noise of a mouse, startled
us in earnest, and in a moment I had darted back to my bed. All was
quiet again.

"Good-night, old boy," I whispered.

"Good-night, old man. Awfully good of you," he replied. "I'll come to
you to-morrow."

And not long after we were both sound asleep.

I managed to keep down my bad marks below four next day, so that I was
able once more to take my walks abroad in the playground.

It was with a little feeling of misgiving that I sallied forth, for
Smith was at my side, reminding me of our resolution to escape, if only
for a few minutes, to the free country outside. I would greatly have
preferred not trying it, but Smith was set on it, and I had not the face
to leave him in the lurch.

The far end of the playground, beyond the swings, broke into a patch of
tangled thicket, beyond which again a little ditch separated the grounds
of Stonebridge House from the country outside.

To this thicket, therefore, we wandered, after "showing ourselves" on
the swings for a few minutes, for the sake of allaying suspicions. The
other fellows were most of them loafing about on the far side of the
gravel yard, where the marble holes were; so we managed to make our
escape pretty easily, and found ourselves at length standing on the
breezy heath. Once there, Smith's whole manner changed to one of wild
delight. The sense of freedom seemed to intoxicate him, and the
infection seized me too. We scampered about in a perfectly ridiculous
manner; up hills and down hollows, leaping over bushes, chasing one
another, and, in fact, behaving exactly like two kids (as we were),
suddenly let loose from confinement.

"I say," said I, all out of breath, "suppose we run clean away, Smith?"

Smith pulled up in the middle of a scamper, and looked up and down on
every side. Then the old solemn look came as he replied, "