hand, and was very satisfied with the way in which his men took cover.
He could not catch a glimpse of one of them among the patches of gorse
and heather and brushwood.

Suddenly Dick stopped dead. He scented danger. Twenty yards ahead a
wren was perched on the topmost twig of a thorn-bush, chattering and
scolding furiously. Now, there is no bird which gives prompter warning
of an intruder than the wren. Whether the intruder be two-legged, man
or boy, or four-legged, stoat, weasel, or pole-cat, the plucky little
wren always gives the enemy a piece of her mind.

'That bird's been disturbed,' thought Dick, and he dropped behind a
great tuft of withered fern and waited and watched. Billy Seton
crawled up without a sound, and lay beside him. Three minutes passed,
and then Dick saw a shock of black hair pushed right under a
low-growing blackthorn, a dozen yards in front.

It was one of the Ravens coming along flat on the ground like a snake.
The Raven put his head out of the blackthorn bush and looked and
listened carefully. He seemed reassured by the silence, and made a
swift dash across the open for the very patch of cover where his
opponents were in hiding. Both were ready for him, but he came in on
Billy's side, and fell to Billy's deftly-thrown ball.

'You're done for, old chap!' chuckled Billy. 'Hand over your flag, and
leg it for the hill, and report yourself.'

The Raven pulled a wry face for a moment, then remembered Law 8, and
tried to look cheerful.

'It's a fair cop!' he remarked. ''Ere's the flag. 'Ope you'll soon
lose it!'

The others grinned and retired to their ambush, while No. 7 of the
Ravens ran to the Beacon to report himself as out of the hunt.

Twenty minutes of careful reconnoitring passed, but Dick and Billy had
seen no further token of any Raven on the move. They gained a thick
hazel copse, and crept into the heart of it to wait in ambush a little
for any sign of an opponent's presence. Peering through the boughs,
Billy whistled below his breath.

'What is it?' whispered Dick.

'Look at the top of the Beacon,' replied Billy, 'We can see it from
here.'

Dick looked, and understood Billy's whistle. Four at the Wolf Patrol
were up there with Mr. Elliott, while of the Ravens there was but one,
the scout whom they had discovered.

'Our fellows have been bagged pretty easily,' whispered Billy. 'I
shouldn't be surprised if that artful patrol-leader isn't at the bottom
of it.'