, to scramble over ditches and hedges, and we had no
choice but to keep on the road. In despair we turned and ran towards
the school, Coverthorne hobbling and hopping along as best he could,
with clenched teeth and subdued groans. Then suddenly, as we turned a
corner, we came face to face with a gentleman on horseback, who on
seeing us abruptly reined in his steed.

My first fearful thought was that this must be Squire Eastman, the
owner of the woods in which we had been trespassing; but a second
glance showed me that I was mistaken, and at the same time I heard
Miles exclaim,--

"Hullo, young man!" remarked the horseman; "you seem in a hurry.
What's the matter? Late for school?"

"No, thank you, uncle," gasped the boy; "it's only--only a game."

Mr. Nicholas Coverthorne was a hard-featured man, with cold gray eyes
and a rather harsh voice. He rode a big black horse, and seemed to
control the animal with a wrist of iron. Something in his manner and
appearance caused me to take an instinctive dislike to him, though at
the time of this our first meeting I certainly had reason to feel
grateful for his opportune appearance, which was undoubtedly the means
of delivering us out of the hands of our enemies. As the leading
"braves" turned the corner, they promptly wheeled about and fled back
the way they had come, shouting out to their comrades that we had been
caught by the squire, at which intelligence the band quickly dispersed
over the fields, and made their way back to the school by different
routes.

A few more sentences passed between uncle and nephew, and though not
any more observant of such things than most boys, it struck me at once
that the relationship between them did not appear to be very cordial.
Mr. Coverthorne explained that he had been over to see a neighbouring
farmer about the sale of a horse.

"I'm going to stay with a friend at Round Green to-night," he said.
"It's rather too far to get here from home and back in the same day,
though I daresay Nimrod would take me all the way if I let him."

The speaker laughed in a mirthless manner, and after a few more
questions as to how his nephew was getting on at school, and when the
holidays began, wished us good-bye, and, with a parting nod, went on
his way.

Miles seemed glad to get the interview ended, and turned to me with
what seemed almost a sigh of relief as the horseman disappeared round
the bend in the road.

"Come on," he said. "The 'Ea