ul days had come back, when he was
one of the leaders in his college in athletics, and had more than once
been in a town-and-gown row. All this before he had settled down into
the heavy serious absent-minded student. There was now a curious
tingling in his nerves, and he felt ready to agree to anything that
would result in the punishment of the cowardly thieves who had left them
in such a predicament; but just then his eyes fell upon Lawrence's
slight delicate figure, and from that they ranged to the face of Mr
Burne, and he was the grave professor again.

"Why, Preston," said the old lawyer, "you looked as if you meant
fighting."

"But I do not," he replied. "Discretion is the better part of valour,
they say." Then, turning to Yussuf--"What is the nearest place to where
we are now?"

Yussuf's face changed. There was a look of disappointment in it for a
few moments, but he turned grave and calm as usual, as he said:

"There is a village right up the valley, excellency. It is partly in
the way taken by the robbers, but they will be far distant by now. They
are riding and we are afoot."

"But is it far?"

"Half the distance that it would be were we to return to the place we
left this morning."

"Forward, then. Come, Lawrence, you must walk as far as you can, and
then I will stay with you, and we will send the others forward for
help."

"I do not feel so tired now," said the lad. "I am ready."

Yussuf took the lead again and they set off, walking steadily on
straight past the cliff-dwellings, and the ruins by the cave, till they
reached the spot in the beautifully-wooded vale where, from far above,
they had seen the horsemen pass, little thinking at the time that they
were bearing off their strong helps to a journey through the mountains,
and all the food.

Here the beaten track curved off to the left, and the traces left by the
horses were plain enough to see, for there was a little patch of marshy
ground made by a little spring here, and this they had passed, Yussuf
eagerly scanning them, and making out that somewhere about twelve horses
had crossed here, and there were also the footprints of five or six men.

"If we go this way we may overtake the scoundrels," said the old lawyer,
"but it will not do. Yussuf, I am a man of peace, and I should prove to
be a very poor creature in another fight. I had quite enough to last me
the rest of my life on board that boat. Here, let's rest a few hours."