ising his bow.

"Ah, y' are a brave boy!" retorted Matcham. "Shoot!"

Dick lowered his weapon in some confusion.

"See here," he said. "Y' have done me ill enough. Go, then. Go your
way in fair wise; or, whether I will or not, I must even drive you to
it."

"Well," said Matcham, doggedly, "y' are the stronger. Do your worst. I
shall not leave to follow thee, Dick, unless thou makest me," he added.

Dick was almost beside himself. It went against his heart to beat a
creature so defenceless; and, for the life of him, he knew no other way
to rid himself of this unwelcome and, as he began to think, perhaps
untrue companion.

"Y' are mad, I think," he cried. "Fool-fellow, I am hasting to your
foes; as fast as foot can carry me, go I thither."

"I care not, Dick," replied the lad. "If y' are bound to die, Dick, I'll
die too. I would liever go with you to prison than to go free without
you."

"Well," returned the other, "I may stand no longer prating. Follow me,
if ye must; but if ye play me false, it shall but little advance you,
mark ye that. Shalt have a quarrel in thine inwards, boy."

So saying, Dick took once more to his heels, keeping in the margin of the
thicket and looking briskly about him as he went. At a good pace he
rattled out of the dell, and came again into the more open quarters of
the wood. To the left a little eminence appeared, spotted with golden
gorse, and crowned with a black tuft of firs.

"I shall see from there," he thought, and struck for it across a heathy
clearing.

He had gone but a few yards, when Matcham touched him on the arm, and
pointed. To the eastward of the summit there was a dip, and, as it were,
a valley passing to the other side; the heath was not yet out; all the
ground was rusty, like an unscoured buckler, and dotted sparingly with
yews; and there, one following another, Dick saw half a score green
jerkins mounting the ascent, and marching at their head, conspicuous by
his boar-spear, Ellis Duckworth in person. One after another gained the
top, showed for a moment against the sky, and then dipped upon the
further side, until the last was gone.

Dick looked at Matcham with a kindlier eye.

"So y' are to be true to me, Jack?" he asked. "I thought ye were of the
other party."

Matcham began to sob.

"What cheer!" cried Dick. "Now the saints behold us! would ye snivel for
a word?"

"Ye hurt me," sobbed Matcham. "Ye hurt me when ye threw me down. Y'