om the wharfinger's house. Through her good offices they
obtained a bucket of clean water, and washed their faces and hands,
promising themselves a good dip in the first river they came to in
their day's journey. So by half-past six they had said farewell to the
bargewoman, and were marching through the silent streets of the little
city in the sweet freshness of a June summer morning.

They had entered Newminster from the south: they were leaving it
towards the north. In order to cover fresh ground all the time, they
had planned their route so that their track as marked on the map showed
as a very much flattened oval. They had worked towards Newminster on a
south-westerly sweep; they were working home again on a north-easterly
tack.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

HOMEWARD BOUND--A DISH OF EELS

For nearly three miles they held to the main road, going due north,
then turned aside to a quiet grassy by-track running north-east, and
were fairly launched on their new route. Moving in quiet, steady
fashion, they made nine miles before they halted, then pulled up below
an oak-tree on the borders of a little wood for a long halt during the
heat of the day. Both, though in good, hard condition, were dripping
with sweat, for the day was unwontedly sultry for early summer.

'Don't mind if I do stretch me legs a bit,' grunted the Raven.

'Yes,' said Dick; 'jolly stiff going to-day, Chippy. Isn't it hot?
But we can take a good long rest now. We've broken the back of the
day's journey.'

'Right time to do it, Dick,' said his friend.

'Rather,' said Dick; 'no time for a tramp like the freshness of the
morning.'

The boys stretched themselves in the shade and lay at their ease for
half an hour, then Dick sat up.

'Well,' he said, 'there seems a hollow inside me somewhere.'

'Same 'ere, Dick,' murmured the Raven. 'We'll fill up. Wot's the bill
o' fare?'

'Chupatties and tea, I fancy,' replied the Wolf. 'We've been carrying
the rest of that bag of flour about since Monday morning.'

'All to the good,' murmured Chippy, 'all to the good. Wot we've
dropped in for has saved our----' He pulled up abruptly, and did not
utter the word 'cash,' which had been in his mind. 'Shan't mention
that,' he continued in a lower whisper still, ''cept we're in the
middle of a ten-acre field.'

Dick laughed. 'We got into a trifle of a fix the last time we
discussed that subject,' he said. 'I say, Chippy, do you reckon that
it was a