"Gone eight, mate?" asked a voice.
Blazer sprang to his feet and uttered a bark; but there was no other answer.
"Blest if oi yeerd it strike!" exclaimed the voice. "But they be all gone, sarting sure, and oi be left behoind. Oi reckon that 'ere clock bean't much account. 'Twants a bigger clapper to t' bell."
And with these words, the door banged to, and the hobnails went dragging across the yard. It was old Jaggers, the cowman, who was as deaf as a post, and was always getting "left behind" if his mates forgot to hail him when the breakfast hour arrived.
The coast was clear at last. Bill laid hands anew on the whitethorn stems. But at that very moment, a dull thud, thud, in his other ear made him stop short. It was a sound of approaching footsteps on the worn grass of the footway. Some one was coming along from the river-side. Would interruptions never cease? Bill gave a guilty look round. It would not do to be seen in the ditch.
A yard or two to the right was a large bramble bush, which had sprung up on the field and straggled over to the hedge, catching hold of the whitethorn with its thorny arms, and interlacing with the blackberry brambles in a thick tangle. Under this shelter, he crept to hide.
Thud, thud came the steps, nearer and nearer. A few minutes more and he would be able to come out. But just as the passer-by reached the very spot where Bill crouched in hiding, the footsteps suddenly ceased.
Bill was puzzled. Who could it be? And why had he stopped exactly there? Bill was shrewd enough to know that if he could not see, neither could he be seen; but it was too bad to be obliged to stop there whilst the moments of that precious half-hour were running to waste.
At length, impatience got the better of prudence, and he determined to get a peep, at the risk of being discovered. With this intent, he commenced creeping by inches towards the limit of his shelter. But a boy's eyes cannot be in two places at once. In his anxiety to keep a watch on the bank, he entirely forgot the necessity of looking to his feet. At the very moment when he caught sight of a well-blacked boot, down slipped his foot into a deep hole, and poor, luckless Bill suddenly found himself measuring his length at the bottom of the ditch.
"Hullo!" exclaimed a voice from above. "What's up?"