come and make friends with me, when I was bad in bed, indeed! A fine sort of friendship yours is! I was a fool to be taken in by a deceitful jackanapes like you; you who would have laughed and clapped your hands if I had died. I know you would !—to come talking a pack of stuff and nonsense to me, about wanting to make friends; faugh! it makes me sick to think of it!"

"Get away, Rogers, will you ?" I cried, shaking myself desperately to get free from him; "I'll call Miss Royce, if you don't leave me alone," and the tears came fast springing to my eyes.

"You had better,-little sneak that you are!

And as he spoke, he pinched my arm so viciously that I could have yelled with the agony.

"You call out, or say anything about me to either of them," he continued, the next instant, "and I'll tell about your having gone down to watch Rylands!"

Out it came, in a long-drawn-out whisper that made me creep in my shoes as I listened. Then he loosed my arm with an angry jerk, and stalked sullenly off towards the porch, where Mrs. Royce stood calling him.

How had he found out? How much did he know? and what would happen if he should carry out his threat, and tell Mrs. Royce? Should we be expelled?

And with my mind pondering ceaselessly these knotty questions, I sat down on the hall floor to unlace my boots, but the only conclusion at which my disturbed thoughts could arrive were summed up in the words which I kept repeating, inwardly, over and over again, "Yes, I can't help it, I do hate him. I can't like him one bit; I hate him, I HATE him.”

Every one was in wonderfully high spirits round the table.

that night; for in twenty minutes or so, we were all busily absorbed over a second tea, "just to keep out the cold after our ride," Mrs. Royce said,—every one but Rogers, that is, for he had been banished to his room at once.

"Why, Bernie, boy, the dust-man' is filling your eyes already!" said Miss Royce, suddenly catching sight of me, as I sat blinking at the lamp, just like any owl.

"Oh, no, he isn't, Miss Royce!" I said, opening my eyes very wide, and speaking with a solemn gravity that deceived her as well as myself. "I'm not a bit sleepy! I shall have to wear my grey 'knickers' to-morrow, shan't I? because there's such a tremendous hole in these. I expect they will never be able to mend them, and then you know I shall only--."

Somehow or other, without a moment's warning, my sudden voluble flow of language dried up, a strange darkness rose up between me and Miss Royce's face, and then, for one brief moment, all my senses seemed to have fled, leaving behind them only a queer sensation of utter blankness; from which condition I was aroused by the consciousness of strong arms lifting me from my seat, and a laughing voice, just above my head, ringing out, "Just look, Mother! here's a little man so tired out, that he has absolutely gone to sleep in the midst of a brilliant speech, and only just managed to get a piece of cake fixed in between his teeth in time to add effect to the tableau !"

There was a general laugh all round the table, and then I was borne off upstairs to bed. But in spite of this recent curious accomplishment of speaking, eating, and sleeping, all at the same moment, I found myself lying awake, listening uneasily to the loud ticking of the great Dutch clock out on the landing; for the pendulum, as it swung solemnly to and fro, with a queer catch before every fresh motion, seemed to be echoing loudly, in its own quaint tones, over and over again, those same words which had been running in my head so long "I hate him! I hate him! I hate him!"

CHAPTER XVII.

A SLIP OF THE TONGUE.

THE next morning we were reading aloud in turn from our Bibles, as usual just before breakfast, when a half-stifled exclamation from the Scamp made every one near him turn to look at him. Following the direction of his eyes, we discovered the object of his surprise in the form of a real, live, full-uniformed policeman, who was walking up the carriagedrive with all the dignity pertaining to his class.

So it was with palpitating hearts that two of us, at any rate, took our seats at breakfast; for, as we filed into the diningroom, Harry Morland seized my hand impulsively, and, with an expressive shrug of his shoulders, pointed significantly towards the room where we knew that Mrs. Royce was holding an interview with the policeman.

"Sam, Mat, Harry, and Bernie, you must stay behind; I want to speak to you for a minute or two," said Miss Royce, as she gave the signal for the rest of the boys to rise and leave the table, many of whom turned round at the door to look back at us with an evident air of interest, as much as to say, "We know all about it!"

As soon as the last had closed the door after him, she commenced the conversation.

"You have not made very good breakfasts, any of you, in

spite of your turn-out upon the hills yesterday; were you all overtired?"

"Oh, no, thank you, not a bit," returned the Scamp, quickly, whilst Harry and I remained silently alarmed at what was, most probably, about to be divulged.

"You heard what was said about Springall Jack' last night," continued she, after a brief pause. "And you know, also, that a policeman has been to see Mrs. Royce this morning."

I looked up at Sam. He was actually smiling as he nodded assent. Ah! he could not know that Rogers had found out our secret, and had probably informed. Mrs. Royce of our guilt; and now, most likely, this policeman had been sent to take us up for trespassing on Rylands' grounds!

"Well," proceeded Miss Royce, "he-whoever he is—is to be brought up before the magistrates this morning, and you four are to go and give your evidence. Come here, Bernie ! you needn't be so frightened, you know," and she raised my pale, scared face, and kissed it warmly; "it will not be very dreadful. You must just try and recall what happened that evening, and tell the whole truth, simply and openly."

"That evening!" Then, evidently, she was not yet aware of that second occasion upon which we had seen this strange and hitherto mysterious character.

The court-room was crowded when we arrived, though we were too early, and had to sit through the hearing of a "drunken" case, before the event of the morning came on.

It was very trying-this suspense-and the thought of all we had to go through wrought our nerves to the highest pitch of excitement. How cold, and numb, and dead my fingers felt; and yet my cheeks were burning!

But possibly the enforced delay hardened us a little to our trying position, and took off the edge of the awe-inspiring nature of the place-which was so strange and different to anything we had ever witnessed or experienced before.

"He's coming now!" cried one, as the drunkard was dismissed with a caution, and the next case called on.

"I wonder who he will turn out to be? no one I know, perhaps," remarked another.

"Oh, don't you know? I heard an hour ago!" said her neighbour, exaggerating somewhat, in her desire to create a sensation.

"Hush, hush! Here they come !" returned the other, not troubling to listen to what was said. "Who can it be, I wonder? Why, it's-yes-no-yes, it is-it's Rylands! Did you ever now?" and she turned round with a look of incredulous surprise.

"I could have told you so, only you wouldn't listen," replied her companion, in an offended tone.

After the first stifled burst of surprise and interest that swept over the crowded court as the prisoner entered had somewhat subsided, the spectators gradually settled down, as though expecting a real, good, stirring time, for the next hour or two.

Two or three, however, rushed hastily out, evidently to blaze abroad the news to the less privileged crowd outside, who, unable to gain admission, were impatiently awaiting any stray fragments of news from their more highly favoured friends within; for through an opening door came wafted back to us the sound of loud voices, calling,—

"It's Rylands! It's Rylands,-the donkey man, you know! That great tall fellow, who goes about with coal!"

"Well, to be sure! whoever would have thought it would be him?"

And then the door swung to again, and the sound of the voices was shut out.

"I really think, sir, I must object to receive the evidence of this little one," said the lawyer who was defending Rylands, when at last my turn came, and the Scamp, having been recalled for a few minutes, had gone through a second examination with flying colours, to the vast delight and amusement of the public.