again, fills them full of sand, and
then twists them up and leaves them to dry."

"And what then?" said cook.

"Pours all the sand out again."

"But, I say, has he got them up there alive before he skins them?"

"I don't know as he has got any at all," said Bella shortly.

"Then why did you say he had?"

"I didn't. I only said I supposed he had, because he's always skinning
something or another. He's got owls, and stoats, and all sorts of
things that he gets in the forest, or that nasty fellow Bunny Wrigg
brings for him."

"Oh!" said the cook. "Because I am not going to sleep upstairs if he's
got live snakes to come crawling out of his room at all times in the
night."

But though guilty of many such acts as the maid charged him with, Waller
was not engaged with any taxidermic preparations, for his time during
the past two days had been taken up in attendance upon the young
fugitive.

For the first day the latter ate nothing, but passed the full
twenty-four hours in a feverish sleep. Then he seemed to throw off the
fever, and, thanks to his host, who was eager to supply him, gradually
transformed himself from the miserable, ragged, famished object into
such a specimen of humanity as made Waller smile with satisfaction.

"Why," he said, "if the soldiers did come they wouldn't know you again."

"Again?" replied the lad. "They've never seen me."

"Well, I mean they wouldn't take you for a--for a--"

"There, say it," cried the lad sadly, "For a spy."

"I didn't mean spy," said Waller. "I meant fugitive."

"But they would. If I were questioned, what account could I give of
myself? I have tried to do the work for which I came--for which we
came--and I have failed. I am not going to tell a lie."

"No, of course not," said Waller hotly; "but you might hold your tongue,
or tell any impudent beggar who dared to ask you questions, to mind his
own business, if he didn't want to be kicked."

"Should you speak to the soldiers like that?" said Boyne, with a smile.

"Of course," cried Waller. "What do I care for the soldiers?"

"Ah!" sighed the lad. "But never mind that. I am so grateful to you
for all you have done."

"Oh, nonsense!" cried Waller, flushing. "People are always hospitable
in the country."

"So I have heard," said the other; "but, if I had been your own brother
you could not have done more for me. You have saved my life."

"Oh, nonsense! I tell you. You make too much of it. I n