gh it be; but I confess I
should be more comfortable rid of these soaking clothes."

So stripping off these, they found, to their great satisfaction,
that the leather jerkins in which the other clothing had been
wrapped had kept everything dry, and the feel of warm and
sufficient clothing was grateful indeed after the icy bath they had
encountered. Their boots were wet, but that mattered little to the
hardy striplings; and when, dressed and armed, they bent to their
oars again, it seemed as if all their spirit and confidence had
come back.

"We have made so good a start that we shall surely prosper," cried
Edward boldly. "Our good friend the peddler will look blank enough
when morning comes and they find the birds are flown."

But Paul could not triumph quite so soon; he was still far from
feeling assured of safety, and feared their escape might be quickly
made known, in which case pursuit would be hot. The best hope lay
in getting into the forest, which might give them shelter, and
enable them to baffle pursuit; but responsibility lay sore upon
him, and he could not be quite as gay as his comrade.

The moon shone out from behind the clouds, and presently they
slipped beneath the arches of the old bridge, and past the grim
fortress of the Tower. Very soon after that, they were gliding
between green and lonely banks in a marshy land, and they presently
effected a landing and struck northward, guiding themselves by the
position of the moon.

It was a strange, desolate country they traversed, and glad enough
was Paul that it was night when they had to cross this unprotected
fiat land. By day they would be visible for miles to the trained
eye of a highwayman, and if pursued would fall an easy prey. But by
crossing this desolate waste at night, when not a living thing was
to be seen, they might gain the dark aisles of the wood by the time
the tardy dawn stole upon them, and once there Paul thought he
could breathe freely again.

All through the long hours of the night the lads trudged onwards
side by side. Paul was more anxious than weary, for he had been
inured to active exercise all his life, and had spent many long
days stalking deer or wandering in search of game across the bleak
hillsides. But Edward, though a hardy youth by nature, and not
altogether ignorant of hardship, had lived of late in the softer
air of courts, and as the daylight struggled into the sky he was so
weary he could scarce set one foot befor