e not likely to meet
anybody in the hevenue, Master Waller, so that's the best going, and we
will keep to that."

"The soldiers will be all up at the Manor, but suppose anybody else is
coming up from the village?"

"If they was I should 'ear them, sir, before they 'eard me. We will
step out, and when you think it best, Master Waller, you turn back, and
make yourself easy. I'll see young squire here safe aboard brother
Jem's boat some time to-morrow, so you had better say good-bye pretty
sharp so as to be ready to slip off when you like. But what about that
there money? Shall I tell brother Jem as I have it ready for him and
his mates when he's set young squire here safe across?"

"Yes, of course," cried Waller.

"Pst!" whispered the man. "In among the trees!" and he caught hold of
Godfrey's hand, dragging him through the bracken and bush, while in his
excitement Waller took cover on the other side of the winding way.

For all at once he was conscious of the flashing of two lights and the
dull rattle of wheels coming through the deep sand of the road.

Directly after the lights were illumining the big trunks of the fine old
trees through which the track ran, and the boy's heart beat all the
faster as through the open window of the post-chaise he caught a glimpse
of the grey, stern-looking head of him whom he had expected so long.

"Father!" he breathed to himself, and he stood gazing after the chaise
till it had passed round another curve and the last gleam of the lights
had disappeared. "Pst!" he whispered. "Bunny! Did you see that!"

There was no reply, not a sound but the faint whirr of the wheels
growing fainter moment by moment, and, confident now that he could not
be seen, the boy left the shelter of the trees, crossed the road, and
entered those on the other side beyond the broad strip of grass.

"Bunny!" he whispered again with no result, and then three times over at
intervals he hazarded the call of an owl; but in vain. Then, after
hurrying for a short distance in the direction he felt that his
companions must have taken, he was brought up short in a clump of
brambles, and, feeling the madness of attempting to follow farther, he
began to think.

"I must trust to Bunny getting him safely off, whether I will or not,"
he muttered. "Oh, but he's sure to get him aboard, and I had not
reckoned on this. Father is up at the porch door by now, to find the
soldiers searching the place, and the first