near Long
Compton, which sounded exceedingly attractive as a campingground,
especially to one who had read "Lavengro" and remembered the Dingle
there, near Long Melton; and hither, very footsore, but still brave and
happy, they came about half-past four, and made a very snug camp in it
without asking anyone's leave.

It was not time for supper, and they were very glad to lie about and be
lazy while the stew was slowly cooking. Robert and Janet and Mary
consulted very deeply about the morrow, and at last decided that it
would be best to remain there all the day and get their blisters cured
with Mr. Lenox's ointment, and therefore a telegram would have to go to
Mrs. Avory at once, telling her not to go to Stratford till Saturday,
"and also," Robert added, "to bring my bicycle. We can easily fasten it
on the roof, and it's going to be frightfully necessary often and
often. This evening, for instance. Here we are, goodness knows how far
from a telegraph-office, and everyone lame except Kinky, who'll have to
go."

Kink, however, had luck, for he met a baker's cart on its way to
Chipping Norton, and the man not only said he would take the telegram
and the letter, but he agreed to bring out a number of things to eat
the next day.

Feeling rested and well fed, they therefore went to bed that Thursday
night much more likely to sleep than on the night before.

And, indeed, everyone did sleep well, except, once again, Robert.
Whatever the reason, he was very wide awake; and at some hour in the
middle of the night he crept out of his sack and walked into the open,
away from the trees, intent upon comparing the magnetic north--which
his compass gave him--with the true north, which anyone can find by
looking at the Great Bear sprawling across the skies and getting the
Pole Star from its pointers.

Having marked the difference on the glass of his compass with a spot of
ink from his fountain-pen, Robert returned to the Hollow; but to his
astonishment and alarm, on reaching the caravan he could not find the
tent. There was the Slowcoach right enough, with its white blinds
glimmering, and he could hear Moses munching close by; but there was no
tent, and apparently no Diogenes.

Robert was not a timid boy, but the lateness of the hour and the
loneliness of the place and this extraordinary occurrence affected his
nerves, so that he suddenly had a panic, and, running up the steps, he
beat on the caravan-door as if wolves were after