they
are coming this way. You're right, I believe, though."

Taking the oars in his hands, he sent the boat through the water at a
rate she had seldom moved before. The noise of the oars attracted the
keepers, who rushed down to the water just in time to see the boat
turning a reach of the river. They hurried along the bank for some
distance, shouting to those in her to stop--an order not very likely to
be obeyed. So vigorously did Pearson ply the oars, that there seemed
every probability of the boat escaping its pursuers. Still the latter
continued to chase along the banks.

"You must take the consequences, then," exclaimed a voice, and directly
afterwards a shot whistled over their heads.

The lads crouched down in the boat, with the exception of Jack, who
followed Pearson's example in sitting still.

"A miss is as good as a mile," observed the latter coolly. "They must
be good marksmen to hit us at the rate we are going in this uncertain
light. Now, if I was minded, I might return the compliment with one of
my long pistols, and maybe they would wish I was farther off."

"What do you carry pistols for?" asked Jack in a tone of surprise.

"Never you mind, young man," replied Pearson, in a different style of
voice to that which he had hitherto spoken. "If I spoke of pistols,
maybe I was joking: you understand me?"

All this time he was vigorously rowing away, edging the boat off to the
other side of the bank to that on which the keepers were following. In
a short time they reached the shade of some tall trees which overhung
the stream, and here the boat was completely hid from sight.

"A few more strokes, and there is little danger of their finding us,"
observed the stranger; and now once more they entered the mouth of the
little river Leen, up which he turned the boat's head. "We have now to
pull against the current," he observed, "and my advice is to land and
leave the boat to look after herself."

"The best thing we can do," answered Jack, and a few strokes brought the
boat to a spot where they could easily leap on shore.

"Don't leave your fish behind you, lads, or your tackle either. If you
leave one, you will lose your suppers; and if you leave the other, you
will be very likely to be discovered. Now, lads, you take your way, and
I'll take mine, only just remember your promise. I consider it as good
as an oath, and any man who breaks his oath to me will have cause to
repent it. Now, good n