inst Harry, and sending him
headlong to the ground, but keeping hold of the bridle. They were
up again in a moment.

"Are you hurt?"

"No."

"Come along, then," and Tom was in the saddle again, when the
pursuers raised a shout. They had caught sight of them now, and
spurred down the slope towards them. Tom was turning his horse's
head straight away, but Harry shouted,--

"Keep to the left, Master Tom,--to the left, right on."

It seemed like running into the lion's jaws, but he yielded, and
they pushed on down the slope on which they were. Another shout
of triumph rose on the howling wind; Tom's heart sank within him.
The enemy was closing on them at every stride; another hundred
yards, and they must meet at the bottom of the slope. What could
Harry be dreaming of? The thought had scarcely time to cross his
brain, when down went the two yeomen, horse and man, floundering
in a bog above their horses' girths. At the same moment the storm
burst on them, the driving mist and pelting rain. The chase was
over. They could not have seen a regiment of men at fifty yards'
distance.

"You let me lead the horse, Master Tom," shouted Harry Winburn;
"I knowed where they was going; 'twill take they the best part o'
the night to get out o' that, I knows."

"All right, let's get back to the road, then, as soon as we can,"
said Tom, surrendering his horse's head to Harry, and turning up
his collar, to meet the pitiless deluge which was driving on
their flanks. They were drenched to the skin in two minutes; Tom
jumped off, and plodded along on the opposite side of his horse
to Harry. They did not speak; there was very little to be said
under the circumstances, and a great deal to be thought about.

Harry Winburn probably knew the heath as well as any man living,
but even he had much difficulty in finding his way back to the
road through that storm. However, after some half-hour, spent in
beating about, they reached it, and turned their faces northwards
towards Oxford. By this time night had come on; but the fury of
the storm had passed over them, and the moon began to show every
now and then through the driving clouds. At last Tom roused
himself out of the brown study in which he had been hitherto
plodding along, and turned down his coat collar, and shook
himself, and looked up at the sky, and across at his companion,
who was still leading the horse along mechanically. It was too
dark to see his face, but his walk and general