rain as
was good for either; and one moment he was awake, feeling rather drowsy;
the next he was gone--plunged deep down in one of those heavy, dreamless
sleeps in which hours pass away like moments, and the awakened sleeper
wonders at the lapse of time.

Nature is very kind to her children, whether they are old or young; and
during those restful times she builds up what the learned folks call
tissue, and strengthens mind and muscle, fitting the said children for
the wear and tear that is to go on again the next day, and the next.

Hilary awoke with a start, and so deep had been his sleep that it was
some little time before he could recall what had taken place.

At first he thought he was in his berth on board the _Kestrel_, for it
was intensely dark, but on stretching out his hands he could touch
nothing, so it could not be there, where his elbows struck the side, and
not many inches above his head there was the top.

No, it could not be there. Where was he then?

Asleep and dreaming, he believed the next minute; and then all came back
with a leap--his capture, the swing off the cliff, the straw in the
donkey-cart, and that was where he was now, only the donkey was standing
still, for there was no jolting, and it had ceased to kick the front
board of the cart.

He had either been asleep or insensible, he knew, and--

"Hullo! they've untied my arms," he exclaimed; "and it isn't so hot as
it was. They must have taken off the cloak."

Yes; the cloak was gone and his arms were free. So were his legs.

No; his legs were securely tied, but the straw over his head had been
taken away.

He lay perfectly still for a few minutes, thinking, and with his eyes
trying in all directions to pierce the thick black darkness by which he
was surrounded, but without avail.

"I wonder where I am," he thought, as, after forcing his mind to obey
his will, he went over in review all the adventures that had befallen
him from the time he left the ship till he was jolting along in that
donkey-cart, half-suffocated in the boat-cloak and straw.

Then there came a dead stoppage. He could get no farther. He knew he
must have gone to sleep, and the probabilities were that the cart had
been backed into some shed, the donkey taken out, and he had been left
to finish his sleep.

"I wish I knew what time it was," thought Hilary. "How dark it is, to
be sure. I wonder where the donkey is; and--hullo! where are the sides
of the cart?"