he's come a-creepin'
arter us, to be sure we've cleared off.'

'No; I'm sure it wasn't the sergeant,' replied Dick. 'The man had a
cloth cap on, and the sergeant had a flat-topped soldier's cap.'

Suddenly Chippy's eyes became round and bright, and he turned a look
full of meaning upon his companion.

'Wot about a convict?' he whispered.

'By Jingo!' murmured Dick. 'There may be something in that, Chippy!
Has a convict escaped? Is he trying to steal across the heath to find
somewhere to hide himself? Is that it?'

Chippy said nothing, but he gave a nod of deep meaning, and the two
boys stared at each other.

'We must follow 'im up,' said Chippy at last. 'Track 'im down an' see
wot it means.'

'Yes, we must,' agreed Dick. 'You see, Chippy, if he is an escaped
convict, he may be a very dangerous character to be at large. I've
heard of them attacking lonely places to get food and clothes to help
them to escape.'

'I've heerd o' that, too,' said the leader of the Ravens; 'an' some o'
the h'eth folk, they live in cottages all by theirselves.'

'Yes; and suppose such a man went to a place where there was no one at
home but a woman, or a woman and children?' said Dick.

'Who knows wot 'e might do?' And Chippy shook his head. 'We're bound
to lend a hand, then--Law 3, ye know.'

'Right you are, Chippy,' said Dick. 'Law 3. Come on!' And the two
boy scouts, game as a pair of terriers, crept swiftly up to the clump
of bushes from which the mysterious stranger had emerged.

From the bushes the track was easy to follow for some distance. There
were no footmarks, but the ferns were brushed aside and some were
broken, and these signs showed which way the man had gone. When the
ferns were left behind, there was still a fair trail, for the heavy
boots of the stranger had broken the grass, or scraped a little earth
loose here and there along the slope of the ridge which led up to Woody
Knap.

Suddenly the boys lost the trail. It disappeared on a strip of turf,
and they slipped back at once to the last spot of which they could be
sure--a soft patch of earth where hobnail marks were fresh and clear.

'Now we've got to separate and try to pick up the line,' said Dick
softly. 'I'll work right, and you left; and we'll meet at that big
thorn-bush right in front, if we've found nothing. If one of us hits
on the track, he must call to the other.'

'Wait a bit,' said Chippy. 'Wot call? Our own calls 'ud sound