ine, was now overcast with heavy clouds.

"We are in for a storm, I think," Dick went on, "and it is coming on
fast. I have not an idea which way to go, and I think our best plan
will be to halt. Joel will track us, and the farther we go the longer
he will be in overtaking us. There is the first drop! The best thing
to do, Tom, will be to take off our saddles and tether our horses, and
then to wait. This storm is a nuisance; in the first place we shall be
drenched, in the second it will wash out our tracks, and the darkness
will come so quickly that I am afraid Joel will not be able to trace us.
You see we do not know whether we have been riding straight or not; the
stag may have been running in a circle for anything we know, and as we
have been riding for something like two hours, we may be within five
miles of home or we may be five and twenty."

Scarcely had the boys got the saddles off and tethered their horses when
the rain came down in a sheet, accompanied by the most tremendous
thunder and the most vivid lightning Tom had ever seen.

"This is awful, Dick," he said.

"Yes," Dick agreed; "thunderstorms here are frightful. Houses are often
struck; but, lying down here in the open, there is not much fear."

For hours the storm continued unabated; the rain came down in a perfect
deluge. The boys had put their saddles together and had covered these
with the horse-cloths so as to form a sort of tent, but they were
nevertheless soaked to the skin, and, to add to their discomfiture, the
horses had been so frightened by the blinding glare of the lightning
that they tugged at the ropes until, as the wet penetrated the ground,
the pegs became loosened, and they scoured away into the darkness.

After continuing for five hours the rain suddenly ceased.

"What are we to do in the morning, Dick?"

"If it is fine it will be easy enough; we shall put our saddles on our
heads and walk eastward. I have got a little pocket-compass which
father gave me in case I should at any time get lost, so we shall have
no difficulty in keeping our way, and sooner or later we must strike the
road running north to Newcastle."

They did not, however, wait till morning; so wet and chilled were they,
that they agreed they would rather walk than lie still. Accordingly
they put the saddles on their heads as soon as the rain ceased and the
stars shone out, struck a light and looked at their compass, fixed on a
star to steer by, and then