hy, you're bleeding
all over. He didn't get at you, did he?"

"It's only the thorns in the hedge," said Johnny, passing his hand
over his face. "But I've lost my hat."

"There are plenty more hats," said the earl.

"I think I'll have a try for it," said Johnny, with whom the means of
getting hats had not been so plentiful as with the earl. "He looks
quiet now." And he moved towards the gate.

But Lord De Guest jumped upon his feet, and seized the young man by
the collar of his coat. "Go after your hat!" said he. "You must be
a fool to think of it. If you're afraid of catching cold, you shall
have mine."

"I'm not the least afraid of catching cold," said Johnny. "Is he
often like that, my lord?" And he made a motion with his head towards
the bull.

"The gentlest creature alive; he's like a lamb generally--just like a
lamb. Perhaps he saw my red pocket-handkerchief." And Lord De Guest
showed his friend that he carried such an article. "But where should
I have been if you hadn't come up?"

"You'd have got to the gate, my lord."

"Yes; with my feet foremost, and four men carrying me. I'm very
thirsty. You don't happen to carry a flask, do you?"

"No, my lord, I don't."

"Then we'll make the best of our way home, and have a glass of wine
there." And on this occasion his lordship intended that his offer
should be accepted.

CHAPTER XXII

Lord De Guest at Home

The earl and John Eames, after their escape from the bull, walked up
to the Manor House together. "You can write a note to your mother,
and I'll send it by one of the boys," said the earl. This was his
lordship's answer when Eames declined to dine at the Manor House,
because he would be expected home.

"But I'm so badly off for clothes, my lord," pleaded Johnny. "I tore
my trousers in the hedge."

"There will be nobody there beside us two and Dr Crofts. The doctor
will forgive you when he hears the story; and as for me, I didn't
care if you hadn't a stitch to your back. You'll have company back to
Guestwick, so come along."

Eames had no further excuse to offer, and therefore did as he was
bidden. He was by no means as much at home with the earl now as
during those minutes of the combat. He would rather have gone home,
being somewhat ashamed of being seen in his present tattered and
bare-headed condition by the servants of the house; and moreover, his
mind would sometimes revert to the scene which had taken place in the
garden at Allingto