. I don't know which way he has gone. They have taken
him perhaps, and now it is no use; I may as well give up, for I can go
no farther."

He sank sideways amongst the heath and fern.

Rodd looked at him in horror, for the poor fellow seemed as if he was
about to faint with weakness and misery, while he kept giving utterance
to hysterical gasps as he was plainly enough struggling hard to avoid
bursting into a passion of weak girlish tears.

"Here, I say, don't do that!" cried Rodd, stooping and catching him by
the arm to shake him violently. "You don't know that the soldiers have
caught your father."

"No, but I feel sure that they must have done so," cried the poor
fellow, rising a little and gazing wildly in the speaker's eyes, while
Rodd's energy seemed to galvanise him into action.

"Well, suppose they have? They'd only take him back into the prison
again, would they?"

"I--I don't know," faltered the lad. "I heard firing, and they may have
shot him down and taken him."

"Yes--may, may, may!" cried Rodd angrily. "But I don't believe our
soldiers would be such brutes. It's only Frenchmen that do such things
as that."

"What!" cried the lad, struggling to his feet. "How dare you speak so
of our brave fellows! I appealed to you for help, and you insult me.
Do you think if you were in France and flying for your life with your
father--"

"Haven't got one," said Rodd shortly. "Died before I was born."

"Do you think then that if you alone had appealed to me for help I would
have treated a poor escaping prisoner like this?"

"Oh, come, I say, don't go on like that. Any one would think you were a
great girl. How can I help you? I daren't. What would my uncle say if
he knew I'd helped a French prisoner to escape from his guards? You
shouldn't, you know. It isn't right nor fair. Just because you have
got into trouble, that's no reason why you should drag another fellow
down too. Look here, what are you running away for?"

"Why?" cried the lad bitterly. "Because I am a prisoner, and I wanted
to see my poor father free."

"Well, look here," said Rodd huskily; "I am very sorry, you know, and
I'd help you if I could, but it's against the law, and--I say! Quick!
Don't speak aloud. I can hear some one coming. Yes, it's the soldiers,
I think."

"Oh!" cried the French lad wildly, and he gazed about him with every
nerve quivering, his whole aspect being that of some hunted beast with
the dogs c