it's light enough for that, so come ashore and--"

_Whish! rush! crash_!

"Row! pull! pull!" whispered Bob excitedly, as there was a loud breaking
of the low growth on the bank close by them, followed by the loud clap
given by a swing-gate violently dashed to.

Dexter pulled, but against the bank, for they were too close in for them
to get a dip of the oar in the water; but what he did was not without
some effect, and, as Bob backed, the boat's head gradually glided round,
shot into the stream, and they went swiftly on again, pulling as hard as
they could.

"Did you see him!" whispered Bob at last.

"No, did you?"

"No, but I nearly did. He has been creeping along the bank for ever so
long, and he nearly got hold of the boat."

"Who was it?" whispered Dexter.

"Pleeceman, but pull hard, and we shall get away from him yet."

They both pulled a slow stroke for quite an hour, and by that time the
horse that had been feeding upon the succulent weedy growth close to the
water's edge had got over its fright, and was grazing peaceably once
more.

Bob was quiet after that. The sudden alarm had cut his string of words
in two, and he was too much disturbed to take them up again to join. In
fact he was afraid to speak lest he should be heard, and he kept his
ill-temper--stirred up by the loss of a night's rest--to himself for the
next hour, when suddenly throwing in his oar he said--

"Look here, I'm tired, and I shall lie down in the bottom here and have
a nap. You keep a sharp look-out."

"But I can't row two oars," said Dexter.

"Well, nobody asked you to. You've got to sit there with the boat-hook,
and push her off if ever she runs into the bushes. The stream'll take
her down like it does a float."

"How far are we away from the town!"

"I d'know."

"Well, how soon will it be morning!"

"How should I know? I haven't got a watch, have I? If I'd had one I
should have sold it so as to have some money to share with my mate."

"Have you got any money, Bob?"

"Course I have. Don't think I'm such a stoopid as you, do yer!"

Dexter was silent, and in the darkness he laid in his oar after the
fashion of his companion, and took up the boat-hook, while Bob lifted
one of the cushions from the seat, placed it in the bottom of the boat,
and then curled up, something after the fashion of a dog, and went off
to sleep.

Dexter sat watching him as he could dimly make out his shape, and then
found that the s