r. First they had the keen professional delight
of having built up by their own observation a theory which proved true
in every particular save one--that the blood found on the scene of the
accident had flowed from a cut in the arm, and not in the head. But
that was a mere detail; in every item that mattered their deductions
had proved sound.

'I should just like to have asked him when the brake went,' said Dick.
'Pretty well at the top of the hill, I know.'

'Must ha' done,' said Chippy, 'by the spin he'd got on the machine.'

They had not seen or spoken to their comrade before leaving the farm.
Fred Hardy was in too weak a state even to know what his brother scouts
had done for him, let alone seeing them or thanking them; his life
still hung on a thread, but that thread would for a surety have been
snapped had not the patrol-leaders discovered him and checked the
bleeding.

'An' to think, arter follerin' him up, he turned out one of us,'
murmured Chippy.

'Wasn't it splendid!' cried Dick.

Yes, that was the very crowning touch of the adventure. They would
have done it all with the most cheerful willingness for anyone, old or
young, sick or poor; but to rescue a brother scout--ah! that gave a
flavour to the affair which filled them with purest delight.

Now the scouts swung forward with steady stride; they had lost a good
deal of time, and the miles stretched before them--a formidable array
to be ticked off before the spires of Bardon would be seen. This sweep
back from Newminster was longer than the road they had followed to the
city, and the extra distance was beginning to tell. They made a good
strong march for three hours, and then halted for a short rest; and
upon this halt a rather awkward accident took place, in which Dick was
the sufferer.

The scouts had been tempted to pause at a point where a shallow brook
ran for some hundreds of yards beside the road, forming one boundary.
They had just made a long stretch of hot, dusty road, and their feet
were aching. The water tempted them to halt, and strip off shoes and
stockings, to bathe their heated and weary feet.

They sat down on the roots of a tree beside the stream, and dangled
their feet in the cool running water, and found it very pleasant and
refreshing.

'There's a fish acrost th' other side, just gone into a hole in the
bank,' said Chippy; 'wonder if I could get 'im out?'

'Are you any good at catching fish with your hands, Chippy?' as