licately upon its long thin green toes, darting
its crimson-shielded head forward and flicking its white black-barred
tail at every step.

"It's very nice to be growing a man," mused Hilary; "but how I could
enjoy being a boy again! I'll be bound to say there's heaps of fish in
that great moat, for it looks as deep as deep."

It was not above twenty yards from him at the nearest end, where it
curved round the place that formed his prison, and from his elevated
position he could command a good view.

"There, I said so!" he exclaimed; "I can see the lily leaves moving.
There's a big tench pushing about amongst the stems. Smack! That was a
great carp."

The water moved in a series of rings in the spot whence the loud
smacking noise had come, and as Hilary excitedly watched the place a
faint nibbling noise reached his ear. After looking about he saw what
produced the sound, in the shape of a pretty little animal, that seemed
to be made of the softest and finest of black velvet. It had crawled a
little way up a strand of reed, and was nibbling its way through so
rapidly that the reed fell over with a light splash in the water, when
the little animal followed, took the cut end in its teeth, and swam
across the moat, trailing the reed, and disappearing with it under some
overhanging bushes, where it probably had its hole.

"I could be as happy as a king here," thought Hilary, "if I could go
about as I liked. Why, there's a snake crawling out in the sun on that
patch of sand, and--phew! what a whopper! a ten-pounder, if he's an
ounce!" he cried, as, simultaneously with the flashing out of a shoal of
little silvery fish from the black surface of the moat there was a rush,
a swirl, a tremendous splash, and the green and gold of a large pike was
seen as it threw itself out of the water in pursuit of its prey.

"I wonder whether they've got any fishing-tackle here," he cried
excitedly. "How I could enjoy a week or two at this place! Why,
there'd be no end of fun, only one would want a companion. Birds' nests
must swarm, and one might get rabbits and hares, and fish of an
evening."

He stopped short, for an acute pang drew his attention to an extremely
vulgar want.

"Oh, I say, what a boy I am still!" he said, half aloud. "Here I am,
half starved for want of food. I'm a king's officer taken prisoner by a
pack of dirty smugglers, and I'm keeping up my dignity as a gentleman in
the king's service by thinking about