d Raymond. "By George, I'm glad to hear it! I hope he'll
keep so, that's all. I am glad I left that fool. He'd not my notions at
all. We split two days ago, and I made tracks for the old diggings; got
down as far as Tarbury under a tarpaulin in a goods train--there's some
sense in a goods train--and then lay close by a weir of the canal, and
got aboard a barge after dark. Nothing breaks a scent like a barge. And
it went the right way for my business too, and travelled all night. I
kept close all next day, and then struck across country for this place
at night. If I hadn't known the lie of the land from a boy, when I used
to spend the holidays with old Alwynn, I couldn't have done it, or if
I'd been as dog lame as I was in July; but I was pushed for time, and I
footed it up here, and got in just before dawn. And not too soon either,
for I'm cleaned out, and food is precious hard to come by if you don't
care to go shopping for it. I am only waiting till it's dark to go and
get something from the old woman at the lodge. She looked after me
before, but it wasn't so serious then as it is now."

"It will be penal servitude for life this time for--Stephens," said
Charles.

"Yes," said Raymond, thoughtfully. "It's playing deuced high. I knew
that at the time, but I thought it was worth it. It was a beautiful
thing, and there was a mint of money in it if it had gone straight--a
mint of money;" and he shook his head regretfully. "But the luck is
bound to change in the end," he went on, after a moment of mournful
retrospection. "You'll see, I shall make my pile yet, Danvers. One can't
go on turning up tails all the time."

"You will turn them up once too often," said Charles, "and get your
affairs wound up for you some day in a way you won't like. But I suppose
it's no earthly use my saying anything."

"Not much," replied the other. "I guess I've heard it all before. Don't
you remember how you held forth that night in the wood? You came out too
strong. I felt as if I were in church; but you forked out handsomely at
the collection afterwards. I will say that for you."

"And what are you going to do now you've got here?" interrupted Charles,
sharply.

"Lie by."

"How long?"

"Perhaps a week, perhaps ten days. Can't say."

"And after that?"

"After that, some one, I don't say who, but some one will have to
provide me with the 'ready' to nip across to France. I have friends in
Paris where I can manage to scratch along for