ts wooden walls,
not a glimmer of light came through its curtained panes.

Joe muttered an ugly word, roughly threw open the door, struck a match,
lighted the lamp and peered about him. Bambo's usual shakedown was
deserted; the pallet where the children should have been was unoccupied.
The place was empty; the prisoners had escaped--under the guidance of
the dwarf undoubtedly, many hours before, probably.

Behind her husband's back Moll executed a sort of breakdown dance, so
great was her satisfaction at the unexpected way in which her wishes had
been carried out. But the disappointment and wrath of Joe over this
sudden overthrow of his schemes were deep and furious.

CHAPTER XII.

FOLLOWED BY THE ENEMY.

"What will the fishers do,
When at the break of day
They seek the pretty boats they left
Moored in the quiet bay?
They seek the pretty boats,
And find that they are fled;
Alas! what will the fishers do?
How can they earn their bread?"

--"A."

After his talk with Darby, the dwarf thought long and anxiously as to
what would be their best route to Firgrove. Under ordinary circumstances
their simplest one would have been to start from Barchester, or else go
back to Engleton, then straight along by the canal to Firdale, thence to
Firgrove, which was only about a mile from the village. But Joe and Moll
would be sure to follow them, in order to make an attempt to recover
their captives. Several times before Joe had tried to kidnap an
attractive smart child whom he could train to be a sort of golden prop
upon which his laziness could lean, but hitherto he had always been
balked in his purpose. He would be furiously angry, Bambo knew, when he
discovered that, just when a life of ease and idleness such as he had
longed for seemed certain in the near future, he was as far as ever from
accomplishing his object.

So, in order to avoid the chance of being brought back and subjected to
greater cruelty than before, the dwarf decided to take a much longer way
than that by the canal. They would strike out across the common behind
Barchester, then double back a bit, and follow an unfrequented road
which also led to Firdale, winding through a long tract of hilly land,
laid out chiefly in runs for mountain cattle and hardy sheep, and
scarcely inhabited except by herds and shepherds.

They could, of course, have travelled by rail, but this mode did not
even occur to Bambo.