ed, each one bringing back more
strength to the invalid, and likewise each day a further contingent of
the wounded in the battle of a month before being passed as fit for
service again and drafted to the front; while each day, too, Pen found
that the strength that used to be his was returning little by little,
and he listened eagerly one night when Punch bent over him and whispered
something in his ear.

"You know I have been talking about it to you," said the boy, "for
several nights past; and when I wasn't talking about it I was thinking
of it. But now--now I think the time has come."

"To escape?" cried Pen eagerly. "You mean it?"

"Yes; I have been watching what has gone on. We are almost alone here,
with only wounded and surgeons. The rest have gone; and--and behind
this village there is a forest of those scrubby-barked oak-trees."

"Cork-trees," said Pen.

"Oh, that's it!" And the boy drew himself up. "But do you think you
are strong enough yet?"

"Strong enough? Of course." And Pen rose, to stand at his companion's
side. "Do you know the way?"

"Yes," And Punch felt for and took his companion's hand, trying to see
his face in the pitchy darkness. "It is to the right of the camp."

"Then let's go."

"Wait," said Punch, and he glided off into the blackness, leaving Pen
standing there alone.

But it was not for long. In a minute or two the boy was back once more,
and this time he held something in his arms.

"Ready?" he asked in a whisper.

"Yes. What for?"

"Stoop.--That's it. I watched, and took them--not English ones, but
they will shoot, I expect," And softly he slipped the sling of a musket
over Pen's shoulders, following that by handing him a cartouche-box and
belt. "I have got a gun for myself too. Better than a bugle. There!"
And in the darkness there was the sound of a belt being tightly drawn
through a buckle. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," said Pen.

"Where's your hand?"

"Here."

"Right!" And the younger lad gripped his friend's extended palm. "Now,
it's this way. I planned it all when you were so ill, and said to
myself that it would be the way when you got better. Come along."

Softly and silently the two slipped off in the darkness, making for the
belt of forest where the gloomy leafage made only a slight blur against
the black velvet sky.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

HUNTED.

"What's the matter, Punch? Wound beginning to hurt you again?"

"No," said the boy sur