into the town at once; but look here, old chap,' he
added, taking my arm in quite a friendly way, 'you had better not wait
here. Just hang about outside in the road, and don't let them see you if
they come back first in the motor-car. I say, Jacintha, it will look
better if you come to Foster's too.'

'It's awfully good of you,' I answered as we all went down the slope.
'How much do you think I shall get?'

'I should think you might get twenty-five shillings,' said Dick, as if
he knew all about it.

'I wish I might,' I cried.

'Well,' he insisted, 'you get into the road and keep dark a bit, and we
will scorch into the town like anything.'

With that they both set off across the field while I scrambled through
the gap in the hedge, and returned to my former position on the grassy
side of the road, lying down and waiting expectantly to see Dick and
Jacintha ride out through the gate; and with the prospect of obtaining
possession of twenty-five shillings, it really began to seem as if the
foundation of my fortune had been laid.

CHAPTER XV.

A very few minutes later Dick rode through the gate followed by Jacintha,
who raised an arm as she turned to the right, pedalled up the slight
hill, and soon disappeared as she began to descend on the other side.
Rising to my feet I had waved my arm in return, and I was strolling
about the grass beside the road, already impatient to see Dick and
Jacintha returning and to learn the full extent of my wealth, when I
heard a motor-car panting along the road.

A glance showed that it was driven by the man who had accompanied
Jacintha that morning she spied me in the corn-field, and a few moments
later he steered the car into his gate. It seemed a long time before I
saw the head of Dick and then of his sister appear above the crest of
the hill. Dick, in his eagerness to reach me, pedalled all the way down.

'I say, Everard,' he exclaimed as soon as he reached me, 'how much do
you think?'

'Did you get the twenty-five shillings?' I asked.

'Two pounds----' began Jacintha, dismounting from her bicycle.

'Let me tell him,' cried Dick. 'Two pounds three and sixpence,' he added
with an air of triumph.

'I am most awfully obliged to you,' I said, as he took a purse from his
jacket pocket.

'Not so bad,' he continued, 'is it? You see I told old Foster he must
give a tip-top price, and of course he knows me. At first, I thought he
was not going to buy the thing at all; he s