es. Tom drew rein, and
looked keenly to right and left, for he knew that The Three Ravens
inn could not be far away.

"Who goes there?" asked a voice which Tom's quick ear recognized
instantly; and he cried out in tones of eager welcome:

"It is I, Tom Tufton--and you are Captain Jack!"

There was a movement of the brushwood, and a horseman stepped out,
the horse having given an eager whinny at the sound of Tom's voice.

"It is Wildfire!" cried Tom, bending over to pat the sleek neck of
his old favourite. "Well, good fellow, have you had a luckier
career than your old master? And yet I scarce can say I wish it
undone. I have tasted life; I have had my glorious days.

"Captain Jack, I am come to you for shelter. There is a price on my
head. I am outlawed in effect if not in reality."

"I have heard it. I expected you," answered Captain Jack in the
friendly fashion in which he had spoken before to Tom. "I have had
news from Lord Claud. It is not the first time he has sent his
pupils to me."

"Have I been his pupil?" asked Tom with a half laugh; "in sooth,
methinks I have been rather his dupe!"

"A little of both," was the answer. "But we must all pay the
penalty of friendship with great men. Yet I think the price is
worth the paying. And now, Tom, if that grand horse of yours is as
little weary as she looks, let us forth together to some place
where none may follow us. And let me tell you that it is not to
every one Lord Claud would present his favourite mare, trained like
a human creature for her trade."

"You know her?" asked Tom eagerly.

"Nell Gwynne and I have been acquainted this many a day. There be
some of her fierce tricks that have been learned from my hand. I
have been teaching the same to Wildfire and Wildgoose. We shall not
be taken or overcome through lack of good beasts to bear us, Tom."

"You have Wildgoose, too?"

"Yes, I sent after him shortly. He was too grand a beast to be
wasted upon a varlet of a serving man. If you have more of the same
stock at home, Tom, we might make shift to get at them anon; but
for the present we are well enough mounted."

They rode side by side through the forest tracks, Nell Gwynne and
Wildfire making acquaintance with apparent mutual satisfaction as
they stepped pace for pace together, their riders talking in quiet
fashion over their heads.

Tom told the whole story of his adventures since arriving in London
in October; and hard indeed was it to believe t