ay no more about
it at present. So they spent the early hours of the beautiful spring
morning in a copse outside the little town, where they were quite happy,
and ate the provisions Peter's wife had put up for them with a good
appetite, thinking no more of the future than the birds in the bushes;
while poor Tim was grudging every moment of what he felt to be lost
time, and wondering where they were to get their next meal or find
shelter for the night!

It ended at last in a compromise. Tim received gracious permission
himself to go to the police to ask the way, provided he left "us" in the
wood--"us" promising to be very good, not to stray out of a certain
distance, to speak to no possible passers-by, and to hide among the
brushwood if any suspicious-looking people came near.

And, far more anxious at heart than if he could have persuaded them to
come with him, but still with no real misgiving but that in half an hour
he would be back with full directions for the rest of their journey, Tim
set off at a run in quest of the police office of Monkhaven. He was soon
in the main street of the town, which after all was more like a big
village--except at the end where lay the canal wharf, which was dirty
and crowded and bustling--and had no difficulty in finding the house he
was in search of. On the walls outside were pasted up posters of
different sizes and importance--notices of new regulations, and
"rewards" for various losses--but Tim, taking no notice of any of these,
hastened to knock at the door, and eagerly, though not without some
fear, stood waiting leave to enter.

Two or three policemen were standing or sitting about talking to each
other. Tim's first knock was not heard, but a second brought one to the
door.

"Please, sir," said the boy without waiting to be asked what he wanted,
"could you tell me the nearest way to Sandle'ham? I'm on my way
there--leastways to some place near-by there--there's two childer with
me, sir, as has got strayed away from their home, and----"

"What's that he's saying?" said another man coming forward--he was the
head officer evidently--"Tell us that again,"--"Just make him come
inside, Simpkins, and just as well shut to the door," he added in a low
voice. Tim came forward unsuspiciously. "Well, what's that you were
saying?" he went on to Tim.

"It's two childer, sir," repeated Tim--"two small childer as has got
strayed away from their home--you may have heard of it?--and I'm
a-t