a small but sufficient chalk-pit a mile or two from
Framshott just as dawn was breaking. As for Hugh's man, after three
hours' zigzag riding through the mist he was deftly persuaded to gallop
into the Worminglore bog, and there Hugh, flinging a parting word of
derision, left him floundering. The man fired a bullet in the direction
of the boy's voice, but it did no harm except to his hat, and only
served to increase Hugh's reputation among his companions at school as
a desperate fellow. It is not every boy who has a bullet-hole in his
hat.

Meanwhile Philip and the stranger spurred to the sea by a devious
course. They rode silently, the stranger's hand alert to seize his
pistol. Suddenly, when only a mile or two from the harbour, a light or
two being visible on the ships riding at anchor, he reined in with a
jerk before a shepherd's hut which stood at the edge of a sheepfold on
the naked down, a yard from the road.

"Just the thing!" he cried; "we have still an hour."

Bidding Philip stay there and keep watch, he leaped from his horse and
opened the door of the hut.

"Who's there?" growled the voice of the shepherd.

"A friend, if you hold your peace," said the young man; "otherwise a
foe, and a strong one, I can promise you." He clicked a pistol as he
spoke, and the shepherd stood up and pulled his forelock.

"I want no words," said the stranger, "and no delay. Do as I tell you,
in the King's name."

"Ay, marry!" cried the shepherd; "in the King's name I'll do anything."

"Good fellow," said the stranger, "well said. Take off that smock and
those legcasings."

The man took them off. The stranger divested himself of Rupert's
clothes at the same time, and hastily donned those of the shepherd.
"Tie mine in a bundle," he said to the man. "I shall leave you cold
to-night, I fear, but here is money. Lie close in a blanket till the
morrow, and then send for your wife to buy other clothes. But keep your
tongue from wagging."

So saying, the stranger shouldered his bundle, and, taking the
shepherd's crook in his hand, he left the hut and rejoined Philip. "My
dear boy," he said, "I must leave you now. I shall creep into the town
under cover of this disguise, safely enough, and be on board in half an
hour. Farewell. I shall never forget your services to me, as you will
be reminded some day, and from a quarter you least expect." With these
words he shook the boy's hand and was lost in the mist.

Philip waited irresolu