the sunny warmth, with a feeling of drowsiness
gradually creeping over him, till all was blank once more, exhausted
nature bearing him into a pleasant, restful oblivion, from which he did
not awaken till all overhead was starlight. The consequence was that he
dropped asleep again--a heavy, dreamless rest of so reposeful a nature
that the troubles of the last forty-eight hours died away, and he did
nothing but sleep--sleep on with all his might.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

THE GOAL.

"_Chare! chare! chare_!"

A harsh, ear-piercing note, sounding as if a scythe-blade were being
held against a rapidly-revolving grindstone, and then the sound died
away.

Then, again, from a distance, then from farther off, and once more from
close at hand.

The next minute there was a fluttering amongst the dense clumps of
hazel, a glint of velvety black, and another of pure white, and directly
after a goodsized bird hopped into sight, showing a big,
closely-feathered warm grey, speckly head, a pair of keen, inquiring
blue eyes, below which were two boldly-marked jetty moustaches.

There was a repetition of the harsh cries, as if the bird-scout were
shouting to companions what he had found. These cries were answered
from different directions, and another bird flew out of the wood and
clung to a stout, upright hazel: one leg full-stretch, the other doubled
close, and the claws hidden in the warm grey fluffy breast feathers; and
as it closed its pinions and hung peering about there, it revealed, in
addition to its beautiful patches of white and black, the turquoise
barred blue markings upon its wings.

Then another came, and another; all noisy, and eager to investigate the
novel phenomenon newly discovered by the sand-pit in the wood.

The sun shone brightly upon millions of glittering gems, most of which
adorned the leaves of the hazels, the ferns, and the spines and blossoms
of the gold and tawny furze; but others had formed upon certain peculiar
patches of cloth, a singularly-shaped piece of checked flannel, and a
square of something white. But these passed as nothing to the lively
party of jays, seeing that there were two wonderful objects standing
alone, side by side, full of sand, while an oval whitish something lay
half-buried close by.

Then one of the jays uttered a shriek of terror, for the oval whitish
something was suddenly lit up by the opening of a couple of lids which
lay bare a pair of dazzled eyes, and these wink