As it happened, Bill was just outside, off for a stroll. Seeing Dick, he turned the other way; but Dick ran after him.
"I say," cried he, "you're in for a pretty row. It's all come out about the goose and those two eggs you stole."
"I daresay!" flung out Bill. "Of course you've been and told."
"Of course I haven't," answered Dick. "The gentleman that put you in his picture smelt it out; and the Squire's gone up with him to the farm, to see the picture and identify your phiz."
This information was so startling that poor Bill's hair positively stood on end.
"It's only to be hoped he hasn't drawn you well," continued Dick; "but somehow these things always do come out. It's what they call the law of justice I expect. If I were you, I guess I'd hide away a bit. You see, you don't exactly know what they may do. You wouldn't get less than a month, you may make pretty sure, with the Squire after you, and Farmer Bluff behind, to back him up."
"But where am I to go?" asked Bill, so seriously that Dick perceived at once how terrified he was.
"Why, right away somewhere," said he, determined upon striking whilst the iron of Bill's fear was hot. "If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't even stay to think. I'd set off this very minute, and I'd go on running till I dropped. I'd walk till night. I'd do anything, short of jumping into the river, to escape a month in gaol. I saw inside a cell once," continued Dick impressively.
And then he shook his head with such effect that Bill looked round, almost expecting that his gaolers were at hand. As nothing was to be seen of them, however, Bill began to examine the matter more closely.
"How can I get food to eat, if I run away?" said he.