e and found Bunny Wrigg and told him all; he'd have helped
me and enjoyed the job. I don't know, though. There's that hundred
pounds reward. I am glad, after all, I didn't trust him. This is one
of the things like father talked to me about where one has no business
to trust anybody but oneself. Here, I mustn't go straight up to the
hiding-place, in case I am watched. Oh, how suspicious I do feel!"

Turning short round, he began to retrace his steps, acting as if he had
fulfilled his purpose and come expressly for that hazel-rod, which he
went on trimming, humming a tune the while, which unconsciously merged
into one of the Scottish ditties about "Charley over the water."

He sauntered on for some distance, till, coming to what he considered a
suitable spot, he glanced furtively to right and left without turning
his head, and then, having pretty well trimmed his rod, he began to
treat it as if it were a javelin, darting it right away before him, and
running after it to catch it up and aim it with a good throw at a tree
some yards away. He went through this performance four or five times
over before aiming for a dense clump of the abundant bracken, into the
midst of which he darted his mock spear, dashed in after it, and did not
appear again, for the hazel-rod was left where it fell, and the boy was
crawling rapidly on hands and knees beneath the great bracken fronds,
keeping well out of sight till, judging by the towering beeches which he
took for his bearings, he stopped at last, hot and panting with his
exertions, close to where he had left the young spy.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

HELPING THE FUGITIVE.

Waller had managed so well that he had only a few yards to go; in fact,
if the task had been undertaken by the tall gipsy-like woodland dweller,
to whom he had referred as Bunny--a nickname, by the way, bestowed upon
him by the boy from his rabbit-like habits, though they were more foxy,
as Waller felt, but he liked him too well to brand him with such a
name--it could not have been done better.

The next minute, with a vivid recollection of the pistol which had been
thrust into the fugitive's breast, the boy was creeping forward and
listening, till, as he came nearer, he became aware of a deep stertorous
breathing, almost a snore, and, closing up, he bent over, to lay one
hand on the hidden pistol, so as to be well on his defence, while with
the other he gently shook the deep sleeper.

Waller expected that the