en place during the past six months since my father wrote me,
"_All's well._" I feel a sudden chill as I think of _her_ from whom I
have been absent for over eighteen months, and reproach myself for not
having communicated to her in some way or other. Is _she_ well, and is
she still _mine_? Then my dear old mother, what of her? With these
thoughts crowding through my brain I feel as if I could leap out of the
boat and swim the remaining half mile, so slowly does she go through the
shallow water.

S-s-s-ssh, bump! and we come to a sudden stop, for my reverie has caused
me to neglect my helm, and there we are, fast on a submerged muddy reed
bed.

All this inland navigation is new to Alec, and he has been delighted to
see how I have handled the craft so far, but I think this _contretemps_
rather shakes his faith in my knowledge, till I explain to him the cause
of my neglect.

A few hearty pushes astern and we are off again, and as the sun begins
to cast its long red rays across the tranquil Broad, with its reedy
margin and water-lily nooks, the "Happy Return" glides alongside our
little lawn. Joy! I am home again! The wanderer has returned, and the
erstwhile Crusoe has once more, like Rob Roy Macgregor, "his foot upon
his native heath."

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FOOTNOTE:

7: See Appendix, page 277, "Norfolk Broads and Rivers."

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CHAPTER XX.

I SURPRISE THE OLD FOLKS AT HOME--ALL WELL--IS PRISCILLA FALSE--WE
MEET--THE MISSING LETTERS--A SNAKE IN THE GRASS--DREAMS OF
VENGEANCE.

As I stepped upon the lawn no one was in sight, so treading lightly I
walked up to the house, and looked quietly in at the window, peeping
cautiously so as not to be seen. To my intense relief the picture I saw
within quite assured me that all was well. There sat my jolly old dad
and my dear mother, cosily taking their tea, quite unsuspecting who
would shortly join them in a cup. They looked very happy; so did a
couple of dogs gambolling on the hearthrug, while our old cat sat on a
rush hassock close by, looking dreamily at them through her half-closed
eyes, when they threatened to knock her off her perch in their play.

I quietly glided in at the side door, and gently opening the parlour
door stood in the room before my parents. They both looked round as I
made a slight sound; in a moment the quietude was broken. My mother half
choked herself with the tea she