The boys felt that the worst of their troubles must now be over, but what was their disappointment when they found the cottage door locked against them, and no light in any of the rooms. The cottage had evidently no one in it, for though they knocked and knocked, there was no sound from within.
"What shall we do?" Jack asked despairingly. "Had we better wait here, do you think?"
Theodore considered the matter in silence for a few minutes; then he remarked that the cottage was probably near a road, and if they could find it they would very likely come across someone.
"But don't let us go out the way we came," he said, "or perhaps we shall get into boggy land again. There ought to be another way out of the garden. Let me help you to climb up this hedge, Jack, and perhaps you may be able to see what's outside."
Jack willingly agreed to this proposition, and, with Theodore's assistance, succeeded in getting on the top of the hedge. Immediately, he uttered a cry of relief.
"We've come to a road," he informed his stepbrother joyfully; "I can see it quite plainly. I don't believe it's so dark as it was, either!"
"A road!" Theodore exclaimed. "That's splendid! Wait! I'm going to climb up to you! Yes, I think it is lighter; I believe the moon's rising."
Theodore spoke almost cheerfully, for if there was a road he knew it must lead somewhere; but the next moment he uttered a piercing shriek, followed by a groan of agony.
"Theo, Theo, what is it?" Jack asked in a fever of terror. "What have you done? Oh, Theo!"
But Theodore continued to groan without making any reply. Jack scrambled down the hedge and felt his way to his stepbrother's side. Then Theodore gasped: