octor has a sort of idee that we may, and
I'm not the man to baulk him. He might be here, you see."

"Yes," said Macey; "he might. There: all right, we'll go on when you
give the word."

"Forrard, then, my lads; there it is, and I wish we may find him. Nay,
I don't," he said, correcting himself, "for, poor lad he'd be in a bad
case to have fallen down here for the night. Theer's something about it
I can't understand, and if I were you, Mr Distin, sir, I'd joost chuck
an eye now and then over the stream towards the edge of the wood."

Distin nodded and the line was swung round, so as to advance for some
distance toward the wood which began suddenly just beyond the stream.
There another shout, and the waving of the miller's hat, altered the
direction again, and with Distin close by the flowing water, the line
was marched back toward the lane with plenty of repetitions of their
outward progress but it was at a slower rate, for the tangle was often
far more dense.

And somehow, perhaps from the brilliancy of the morning, and the
delicious nature of the pure soft air, the lads' spirits grew higher,
and they had to work hard to keep their attention to the object they had
in view, for nature seemed to be laying endless traps for them,
especially for Macey, who certainly felt Vane's disappearance most at
heart, but was continually forgetting him on coming face to face with
something fresh. Now it was an adder coiled up in the warm sunshine on
a little dry bare clump among some dead furze. It was evidently
watching him but making no effort to get out of his way.

He had a stick, and it would have been easy to kill the little reptile,
but somehow he had not the heart to strike at him, and he walked on
quickly to overtake the line which had gone on advancing while he lagged
behind.

Ten minutes later he nearly stepped upon a rabbit which bounded away, as
he raised his stick to hurl it after the plump-looking little animal
like a boomerang.

But he did not throw, and the rabbit escaped. He did not relax his
efforts, but swept the tangle of bushes and brambles from right to left
and back to the right, always eagerly trying to find something, if only
a footprint to act as a clue that he might follow, but there was no
sign.

All at once in a sandy spot amongst some furze bushes he stopped again,
with a grim smile on his lip.

"Very evident that he hasn't been here," he muttered, as he looked at
some scattered specim