of
tinder."

"It is a good thing to keep one's eyes open," Dimchurch remarked. "Now if
I had seen that piece of stone I should not have given it a thought, and
here it is going to give us a hot dinner!"

As there were numbers of fields in the neighbourhood they soon returned
with an armful of maize each. Dried weeds and sticks were then collected,
and after repeated failures a light was at last obtained, and soon the
grain was roasted. A jacket was stretched across the entrance of their den
so that, should anyone be passing near, they would not observe the light.

"Now," Will said as they munched some maize the next evening, "we must
start foraging. We will go in opposite directions, and each must take his
bearing accurately or we'll never come together again."

They were out for some hours, and when they returned it was found that
Will had come across four fowls, Tom had gathered a variety of fruit,
consisting chiefly of melons and peaches, while Dimchurch, who was the
last to come in, brought a small sheep.

"We only want one thing to make us perfect," Will said, "and that is a
pipe of 'bacca."

"Well, that would be a welcome addition," Tom admitted, "but it does not
do to expect too much. I should not be at all surprised if we were to
light upon some tobacco plants in one of the gardens, but of course it
could hardly be like a properly dried leaf. I dare say, though, we could
make something of it."

So they lived for a month, sometimes better, sometimes worse, but with
sufficient food of one sort or another. So far as they knew no suspicion
of their presence had been excited, though their petty robberies must have
been noticed. One evening, however, Will, on going to the top of the
sand-hill, as he generally did, saw a large detachment of soldiers coming
along, searching the ground carefully. He ran down at once to his
companions.

"Take your weapons, lads," he said, "and make off; a strong party of
soldiers are searching the country, and they are coming this way. No doubt
they are looking for us."

They had run but a few hundred yards when they heard shouts, and, looking
round, they saw a Moorish officer waving his hands and gesticulating. This
was alarming, but they reckoned that they had fully five hundred yards
start.

"Keep up a steady pace," Will said; "I don't expect the beggars can run
faster than we can. It will be pitch dark in half an hour, and as,
fortunately, there is no moon, I expect we'll