and real shame for having behaved so crossly and
unkindly about his disappointment, and he became filled with a great
desire to work well, and make up in that way for his past behaviour.
So the weeks sped by; half term came and went, and early in July came a
letter from Stella. They were to go away for a summer holiday, after all,
she wrote excitedly, and evidently impressed with the idea that she was
conveying wonderful news. They were to go to Dartmoor. Father had taken
rooms in a big farmhouse on the moors, and it was lovely; there were
horses and wagons, and hay-fields and orchards, and big tors where they
could go for picnics.

"Dartmoor!" exclaimed Paul, as he thrust the letter into his pocket.
"What a place! What is there for me to do? Just go for walks with the
kids, I s'pose; I'd quite as soon stay at home." And he sniffed
scornfully, and went about all day in a bad temper.

"Dartmoor is a ripping fine place!" Paul had confided his woes to his
chum, Dennis Rogers, and that was the response he met with. "I only wish
I was going there this summer. We were there two years ago; oh, my, it
_was_ jolly! I wonder what part you are going to, and if you'll be
anywhere near the convict prison."

Paul pricked up his ears.

"The convict prison," he cried eagerly. "I'd forgotten that that was down
there. Oh, I do hope we go quite close to it. I'd like awfully to see
the convicts. Did you ever see any of them? Were you near them?"

"See them! I should just think so. I saw a convict's funeral once, too;
the coffin was carried by the convicts all in their prison clothes, with
whacking great broad arrows over them."

"What were they like? Did they look like murderers? Did you see any of
those that are in Madame Tussard's?" asked Paul, full of curiosity.

"Some of them were pretty bad-looking, but the rest were just like
ordinary people. You'd never think from their faces, that they were
murderers, and burglars, and forgers, and all that sort of thing.
I felt awfully sorry for them, but my mater hurried me away, and wouldn't
let me have a good look at them. I know one thing, I would have helped
them to escape if they had tried to."

"I do hope we shall be in that part," said Paul, excitedly. "I'd give
anything to see the prisoners and the prison. I say, did any escape while
you were there?"

"No, 'twas hard luck. One got away in the winter after we left, and
wasn't caught for a day or two; it wa