"I did," said the man, "he's straight before you."

Without waiting to consider that the traveller might be another person the boys started after him. He was walking quickly and he kept his distance for a half a mile of the road. Then they started to run after him. Finn and Tim were breathless when they came up with the traveller; then, behold, he was not Bartley at all!

It was past the middle of the night and they were on an empty road. Tim said the best thing to do was to go back to the place where the road crossed and take the other turning. Keeping to the middle of the road so as to be at a distance from the mysterious hedgerows, the boys ran back. They came to the turning and took the other road. Still running they fell over something that was in the middle of the way. It scrambled to its feet and then went clattering along the road. It was a donkey that had been sleeping in the middle of the thoroughfare. The boys were excited by this encounter—so excited that they passed without noticing the house where Bartley had taken lodgings for the night. They took breath and began to run again.

And now Tim noticed a very strange sight—lights moving across the fields. They ran on, and when they looked behind them they saw the lights crossing the road. Nothing would induce Finn to go back, for when he saw the lights he thought of the fairies. The boys ran faster and faster. And the lights that made it impossible for them to go back along that road were held by a party who had come out with Bartley to search for them.

And now they were on a strange road and in all the wide country there was not a sound to be heard, there was not a house to be seen. They came to a cross-roads with a sign-post and Tim hoisted Finn up to read the inscription,—"To Dublin, fifteen miles."

Tim recovered his spirits when he found that Dublin was such a short journey. "We'd get there tomorrow by walking," he said. "We could find your grand-aunt. Your uncle will know that we went on and will follow us tomorrow. And if we keep on the straight road he'll overtake us."

The chance of reaching Dublin made the prospect less frightful for Finn.

"Come on," said Tim, "we'll march to Dublin our lone selves. Hurrah for us!"

The spirits of both were aroused and they started from the sign post talking and telling stories. But after a mile of the road Tim's own courage drooped. It was a frightening thing to be in the middle of a silent country at an hour when human beings knew it was advisable to be shut up in houses. An owl flew past them. Then two hounds came along, softly and quietly. They were on a hunting expedition of their own and they did not bark at the boys nor turn towards them.

"Look!" said Finn. There was another light before them, but this they knew was not supernatural. It was a fire in a field by the side of the road. No one was by it; it had nearly burnt out but there were heaps of wood beside it. Tim and Finn came near the fire and they felt it was company for them. They put more wood on it and took hay from the cocks in the fields and sat down at it. An Irish terrier that had been sleeping somehwere near came and put his head on Tim's lap. When the fire blazed up and when they were comfortable and near sleepiness, Tim told Finn wonderful stories. He told him of fires lighted in the middle of forests and of elephants coming and kneeling around the blaze, and of black men creeping near and chaining the elephants one to the other, so that when they ran they got tied up in the trees and the black men came and cut off their tusks. Then, after the elephants had gone, swarms of parrots flew down and sat round the fire and talked and talked. Then they would get angry with each other and begin to fight and in the morning there would be nothing beside the fire but a heap of feathers. Tim assured Finn he had read all this in books.

The terrier slept and Tim stretched himself out on the hay and slept too. Finn thought he saw a flock of green parrots sitting round the fire. Then he, too, slept. When he wakened it was broad daylight and a pig had come up to them and was rooting at the hay. There was nothing for them to do but start on their journey and take the little terrier (they named him Tiger) with them. Where would they get their breakfast? Tim explained how a breakfast could be provided. All they would have to do would be to catch one of the goats that were near and milk her. A full drink of milk would be as good as any breakfast. They had no vessel to milk the goat into but they could get the loan of one from a cottage. Meantime, Tim undertook to show Finn how the goat should be handled. He came near enough, but when he made a grab at the hair of the goat he got a puck that knocked him off into a ditch. Then Tiger began to bark at the assailant, and such a row was made that the boys had to hurry off.

They did another half mile and Tim became more hungry. He pointed out to Finn how easy it would be to capture one of the ducks that were gobbling along the roadside; and they could kill it and cook it when they were farther on their way. But when he tried to catch one he was astonished to find how wary a bird a duck is.

Then he was quiet for a part of the road and Finn made him listen to his plan—it was that they should sit by the roadway and wait until Bartley's cart came along. And if the cart didn't come soon they could go into one of the cottages and explain how they had become separated from Bartley. Finn was certain that the people would know Bartley's name and would give them breakfast.

But this plan was too mild for Tim and he declared he was going to rob an orchard. For another half mile of the road the boys discussed the robbing of orchards, Tim talking loudly about his exploits in that direction. Sooner than Finn wished they came where apple trees appeared behind a garden wall. The apples were small and unripe but Tim did not appear to notice this. He commanded Finn to take Tiger farther down the road and tie him up. When Finn came back the plan was perfected. They were to attack the orchard from the side of the field where the wall was low and they were to approach the point as Indians would approach it in single file, that is, one after the other. Tim went first and when they were a sufficient distance from the road he gave the word to climb. They climbed the wall hastily and found themselves above a house that looked quite deserted. They jumped down and made for the nearest tree. Tim shook it but no fruit fell; he shook it more energetically, but still the apples remained upon the boughs. Then he commanded Finn to climb. He was in the fork of the tree when an event happened that made him shake so with terror that apples fell from the branches. A man appeared at the window; he had a gun in his hands and both Finn and Tim saw him put a charge into it and ram it down with a ram-rod.

Finn heard Tim cry, "Oh, sir, don't shoot us."

"Shoot you," said the man, "I'll blow a hundred holes through you if you don't do my bidding. March into the house."

Finn slid down from the tree, and very warily the pair went towards the house and entered a wide, disordered kitchen. There was a big laundry basket in the centre of the floor. The man with the gun appeared.

"Each of you take a handle of that basket," he commanded.

Finn took one handle and Tim took the other.

"Take that basket to the village," said the man, "and leave it at Mrs. Mulligan's, the washerwoman's."

Still holding the gun in his hand he marched them out of the house, opened the garden gate with a key and let them out on the road.

"Tell Mrs. Mulligan from me," said he sternly, "that if the clothes are not back by Wednesday—by Wednesday, mind—I'll shoot all belonging to her. Go!"

The boys ran down the road with the basket between them. They heard the man say, "Remember!" and when they looked back they saw him tapping the gun in a way that had significance for them as well as for Mrs. Mulligan.

Tiger barked as they came to where he was tied. Very hastily Finn unloosed him, and with the basket between them and Tiger following them they went quickly to the village.