There he was indeed, a placid brown-coated old donkey, cropping the grass on the common on which he had been turned out. The boys gave him a cheer, and the donkey, when he heard their shout, lifted his head and brayed long and sonorously, as if he understood all about it, and was eager to reply.
Tuesday morning's march was fairly uneventful. The comrades did quite a number of good turns for people, for, like good scouts, their eyes were always on the watch for anyone who needed a helping hand, and Chippy commented on the number of chances which turned up.
'Rum, ain't it?' he remarked; 'afore I wor a scout, I never used to twig how many chances there are o' lendin' a hand. I s'pose they wor' theer, only I ne'er seed 'em.'
'That's about it,' said Dick. 'I've noticed just the same thing myself. Doing your work as a scout teaches you how to keep your eyes open.'
Midday brought them to the edge of a wide stretch of heath country, where they were quite at home. They halted as soon as they reached the heath, built their fire, and made a good meal on the smaller trout, the remains of the big one, the remains of the loaf, and a billy of tea.
The afternoon journey lay directly across the great, lonely track, and they only saw two or three small hamlets, dwellings of broom-squires, heath- and furze-cutters, or squatters. As the afternoon wore on the sky began to wear an ominous look. The scouts had seen several signs that rain was near. For one thing, a very sure sign, distant ridges had shown themselves sharply clear in the afternoon sunshine, and had looked far nearer then they were. Now great blue-black clouds began to roll slowly up the western sky.
'Going to be a rough night, Chippy,' said the Wolf.
'No mistake, Dick,'replied his companion; 'it'll be too wet for the open to-night. We'll have to look for shelter.'
'If we can only do a turn for someone and get permission to sleep in the hayloft,' went on Dick, 'that would be first-rate. We don't want to spend money on lodgings.'
'Soon bust the ten bob that way,' grunted Chippy.' 'Look, theer's a village right ahead, wi' trees an' fields. We'll be out o' the he'th soon. P'raps we can manage it there.'