m his neck, and began to bind it
round his bleeding palm.

"Nowt much, sir," said the man smiling.

"Why, Hickathrift, were you hit?"

"S'pose I weer, sir. Something came with a whuzz and knocked my hand
aside."

"Oh!" ejaculated Dick; while Mr Marston sat with his heart beating,
since in spite of his efforts to be cool he could not help recalling the
evening when he was shot, and he glanced round, expecting to see a flash
and hear another report.

Dick seized the pole which he had laid down, and, thrusting it down,
forced the punt back from the reeds, and then, as soon as they were in
open water, began to toil as hard as he could for a few minutes till the
wheelwright relieved him. Declaring his injury to be a trifle, he in
turn worked hard with the pole till, after running into the reeds
several times, and more than once striking against patches of bog and
rush, they must have got at least a mile from where the shot was fired,
by accident or purposely, when the great fellow sat down very suddenly
in the bottom of the boat.

As he seated himself he laid the pole across, and then without warning
fell back fainting dead away.

A few minutes, however, only elapsed before he sat up again and looked
round.

"Bit sick," he said. "That's all. Heven't felt like that since one o'
squire's horses kicked me and broke my ribs. Better now."

"My poor fellow, your hand must be badly hurt!" said Mr Marston; while
Dick looked wildly on, scared by what was taking place.

"Nay, it's nowt much, mester," said the great fellow rather huskily,
"and we'd best wait till the mist goes. It's no use to pole. We may be
going farther away, like as not."

Dick said nothing, but stood listening, fancying he heard the splash of
a pole in water; but there was no sound save the throbbing of his own
heart to break the silence, and he quite started as Mr Marston spoke.

"How long is this mist likely to last?"

"Mebbe an hour, mebbe a week," was the unsatisfactory reply. "Bud when
the moon rises theer may come a breeze, and then it'll go directly."

Hickathrift rested his chin upon his uninjured hand, and Dick sat down
in silence, for by one consent, and influenced by the feeling that some
stealthy foe might be near at hand keen-eyed enough to see them through
the fog, or at all events cunning enough to trace them by sound, they
sat and waited for the rising of the moon.

The time seemed to be drawn out to a terrible extent befo