The lads crouched down in the boat, with the exception of Jack, who followed Pearson’s example in sitting still.
“A miss is as good as a mile,” observed the latter coolly. “They must be good marksmen to hit us at the rate we are going in this uncertain light. Now, if I was minded, I might return the compliment with one of my long pistols, and maybe they would wish I was farther off.”
“What do you carry pistols for?” asked Jack in a tone of surprise.
“Never you mind, young man,” replied Pearson, in a different style of voice to that which he had hitherto spoken. “If I spoke of pistols, maybe I was joking: you understand me?”
All this time he was vigorously rowing away, edging the boat off to the other side of the bank to that on which the keepers were following. In a short time they reached the shade of some tall trees which overhung the stream, and here the boat was completely hid from sight.
“A few more strokes, and there is little danger of their finding us,” observed the stranger; and now once more they entered the mouth of the little river Leen, up which he turned the boat’s head. “We have now to pull against the current,” he observed, “and my advice is to land and leave the boat to look after herself.”
“The best thing we can do,” answered Jack, and a few strokes brought the boat to a spot where they could easily leap on shore.
“Don’t leave your fish behind you, lads, or your tackle either. If you leave one, you will lose your suppers; and if you leave the other, you will be very likely to be discovered. Now, lads, you take your way, and I’ll take mine, only just remember your promise. I consider it as good as an oath, and any man who breaks his oath to me will have cause to repent it. Now, good night to you all.”
Having bid the stranger farewell, Smedley and the other two lads took their way along the banks of the river, in the direction of some dilapidated sheds, where they had arranged to meet and enjoy, according to their own fashion, their hard-won supper. The stranger lounged away across the bridge at some little distance from the sheds, while Jack, anxious to get home, hurried off in the direction of the market-place.
“I was wrong to go,” said Jack to himself. “Suppose one of us had been shot, it would have been paying very dear for our night’s sport. Such doings might be easily overlooked in a boy, but I am one no longer. I feel that. I claim to be a man, and as a man I must act. I hope there is work for me to do in the world of some sort, and the sooner I begin it the better, and put aside all my boyish pranks.”