eyes had been rat-like in their eager peering from face to
face, whisked himself free, darted to the end of the platform, and
uttered a loud yell before he disappeared.

"Look here, Dexter," said the doctor coldly; "I have been talking to Sir
James on our way here. Now sir, will you give me your word not to try
and escape?"

Dexter looked at him for a moment or two.

"Yes, sir," he said at last, with a sigh.

"Then come with me."

"Come with you, sir?"

Dexter looked at his stained and muddy clothes.

"Yes," said the doctor; "come with me."

Sir James shrugged his shoulders slightly, and gave the doctor a meaning
look.

"Good-bye, Grayson," he said, and he shook hands.

"As for you, sir," he added sternly, as he turned to Dexter, "you and
your companion have had a very narrow escape. If it had not been for
your good friend here, matters would have gone ill with you--worse
perhaps than you think."

Dexter hung his head, and at a sign from the doctor went to his side,
and they walked out of the station with Dan'l and Peter behind.

The doctor stopped.

"You have given me your word, sir, that you will come quietly up to the
house," he said coldly.

"Yes, sir," said Dexter sadly.

The doctor, signed to Dan'l and Peter to come up to them.

"You can go on first," he said; and the men passed on.

"I don't want you to feel as if you were a prisoner, Dexter," said the
doctor gravely. "It is one of the grandest things in a gentleman--his
word--which means his word of honour."

Dexter had nothing he could say; and with a strange swelling at the
throat he walked on beside the doctor, gazing at the pavement a couple
of yards in front of him, and suffering as a sensitive boy would suffer
as he felt how degraded and dirty he looked, and how many people in the
town must know of his running away, and be gazing at him, now that he
was brought back by the doctor, who looked upon him as a thief.

Every house and shop they passed was familiar. There were several of
the tradespeople too standing at their doors ready to salute the doctor,
and Dexter's cheeks burned with shame. His punishment seemed more than
he could bear.

In another ten minutes they would be at the house, where Maria would
open the door, and give him a peculiar contemptuous look--the old look
largely intensified; and but for the doctor's words, and the promise
given, the boy felt that he must have run away down the first
side-turning they pas