s toward the light, but there was
nothing visible as Tom turned slowly upon his heels, till he was looking
nearly straight back along the way he had come, and then, quick as
thought, he dropped down amongst the bracken, and crept on hands and
knees till, still sheltered by it, he could watch the object he had
seen.

That object was Pete Warboys, who had suddenly risen up out of the
earth, and stood yawning and stretching himself, ending by giving one of
his shoulders a good rasp against a fir-tree.

"Why, he must have been sleeping there," thought Tom, "and I must have
passed close to his hole. What an old fox he is. Hullo! there's the
dog."

For the big mongrel suddenly appeared, and sprang up so as to place its
paws upon its master's breast, apparently as a morning greeting. But
this was not received in a friendly way.

"Get out!" growled Pete, kicking the dog in the leg. There was a loud
yelp, and Pete shook himself and began to slouch away.

Tom watched him till he had disappeared among the trees, and then went
back over his track till he stood close to the spot whence the lad had
appeared. Here Tom looked round, but nothing was visible till he had
gone a few yards to his right, when, to his surprise, he came to the
side of the opening down in which was the side hole running beneath the
roots of the great fir.

Tom had another look back, and, seeing nothing, he leaped down on to the
soft sand, felt in his pocket, and brought out a tin box of wax-matches.
Then, dropping upon his knees, he lit one, and holding it before him,
crept under the roots and into a little cave like a low rugged tunnel
scooped out of the sandy rock, and in one corner of which was a heap of
little pine boughs, and an exceedingly dirty old ragged blanket.

By this time Tom's match went out, and he lit another, after carefully
placing the burnt end of the first in his pocket.

This light gave him another view of the little hole, for it was quite
small, but there was not much to see. There were the leaves and
blanket, both still warm; there was a stick, and a peg driven into the
side, on which hung a couple of wires; and some pine-tree roots bristled
from the top and sides. That was all.

"No pears, not even a plum-stone," said Tom, in a disappointed tone, for
he had pictured this hole from which he had seen Pete issue as a kind of
robber's cave, in which he would find stored up quantities of stolen
fruit, and perhaps other thing