nd hard hands pulled him to his feet and
thrust the crutch under his arm.

"Step out!" said one of the voices, "and step out sharp--see?--or I'll
l'arn you! There's a carriage awaiting for you."

He stepped out; there was nothing else to be done. They had taken the
cloak from his eyes now, and he saw presently that they were nearing a
coster's barrow.

They laid him in the barrow, covered him with the cloak, and put
vegetable marrows and cabbages on that. They only left him a little room
to breathe.

"Now lie still for your life!" said the second voice. "If you stir a
inch I'll lick you till you can't stand! And now you know."

So he lay still, rigid with misery and despair. For neither of these
voices was strange to him. He knew them both only too well.

CHAPTER X

THE NOBLE DEED

WHEN Lord Arden and Elfrida and Edred reached the castle and found that
Dickie had not come back, the children concluded that Beale had
persuaded him to stay the night at the cottage. And Lord Arden thought
that the children must be right. He was extremely annoyed both with
Beale and with Dickie for making such an arrangement without consulting
him.

"It is impertinent of Beale and thoughtless of the boy," he said; "and I
shall speak a word to them both in the morning."

But when Edred and Elfrida were gone to bed Lord Arden found that he
could not feel quite sure or quite satisfied. Suppose Dickie was not at
Beale's? He strolled up to the cottage to see. Everything was dark at
the cottage. He hesitated, then knocked at the door. At the third knock
Beale, very sleepy, put his head out of the window.

"Who's there?" said he.

"I am here," said Lord Arden. "Richard is asleep, I suppose?"

"I suppose so, my lord," said Beale, sleepy and puzzled.

"You have given me some anxiety. I had to come up to make sure he was
here."

"But 'e _ain't_ 'ere," said Beale. "Didn't you pick 'im up with the
dog-cart, same as you said you would?"

"No," shouted Lord Arden. "Come down, Beale, and get a lantern. There
must have been an accident."

The bedroom window showed a square of light, and Lord Arden below heard
Beale blundering about above.

"'Ere's your coat," Mrs. Beale's voice sounded; "never mind lacing up of
your boots. You orter gone a bit of the way with 'im."

"Well, I offered for to go, didn't I?" Beale growled, blundered down the
stairs and out through the wash-house, and came round the corner of the
house with a st