for his life
along the road towards home. His first idea and aim was to get back
through the window again, and bar himself in from all danger, but the
banging of his boots as he ran, reminded him that he had not yet fulfilled
his object, and another terror was added to his burthen. When at last he
got back out of sight of the lonely moor, and within the shelter of the
farm, some of his courage returned, and greatly though he dreaded it, he
made his way to the boot-house instead of scuttling into the house, and
into safety at once. Strangely enough the window of the boot-house was
open and he had soon dropped his boots inside, in the hope that they would
appear in the morning with the others, all black, shiny, and innocent
looking; and crept away back to the open window whence he had escaped.
It was not as easy to get back as it had been to get out; the window was
higher from the ground on the outside, and Paul barked both his knees
badly before he succeeded. Then, gently dropping to the floor, he crept
softly upstairs and into his bed. The sight of the cosy room, the safety,
warmth, and comfort of it all, helped him to forget all his woes, his
smarting knees, the thorns in his feet, and his shivering, aching body.

"I wouldn't mind a bit," he thought, "if I'd only got something to eat;
but what a tale it'll be to tell the other fellows when I get back to
school." And so comforting himself he fell asleep.

When he awoke it was with a feeling that he had overslept himself, and
that the morning was well advanced. This feeling grew stronger, too,
when, on turning and stretching, he heard his mother's voice:
"Paul, Paul, awake at last? Why, what a sleepy boy you are! Have you had
a disturbed night, dear?"

He opened his eyes with a puzzled stare. "Is it late, mother? Have you
had breakfast? What's the time?"

"Eleven o'clock. Yes, we had breakfast hours ago, but when we found we
could not rouse you, we let you sleep on. Were you disturbed in the
night, dear?"

He opened his still drowsy eyes again. "Disturbed!" he said stupidly.
He really did not remember at once all that had happened. "No, I don't
think so. Why?"

"We think someone broke into the house last night. At least, one of the
kitchen windows and the shutter were found open, and there were footmarks
on the window-sill, and about the floor. The strange thing is that
nothing has been moved or taken away, but Mrs. Minards is greatly
frightene