Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books Transcriber's Note: 1. Page scan source: http://books.google.com/books?id=6DAPAAAAQAAJ A HERO OF ROMANCE [Illustration: "Perhaps you don't know who I am?" (_Page_ 155.)] _A Hero of Romance_.] [_Frontispiece_. A HERO OF ROMANCE BY RICHARD MARSH _Author of "The Datchel Diamonds," "The Crime and the Criminal_" _etc., etc_. ILLUSTRATED BY HAROLD COPPING LONDON WARD, LOCK & CO. LIMITED NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE Contents CHAP. I Punishment at Mecklemburg House. II Tutor Baiting. III At Mother Huffham's. IV A Little Drive. V An Evening at Washington Villa. VI Afterwards. VII The Return of the Wanderer. VIII Preparing for Flight. IX The Start. X Another Little Drive. XI The Original Badger. XII A "Doss" House. XIII In Petersham Park. XIV In Trouble. XV Out of the Frying-pan into the Fire. XVI The Captain's Room. XVII Two Men and a Boy. XVIII The Boat-train. XIX To Jersey with a Thief. XX Exit Captain Tom. XXI The Disadvantages of not Being Able to Speak French. XXII The End of the Journey. XXIII The Land of Golden Dreams. Chapter I PUNISHMENT AT MECKLEMBURG HOUSE It was about as miserable an afternoon as one could wish to see. May is the poet's month, but there was nothing of poetry about it then. True, it was early in the month, but February never boasted weather of more unmitigated misery. At half-past two it was so dark in the schoolroom of Mecklemburg House that one could with difficulty see to read. Outside a cold drizzling rain was falling, a shrieking east wind was rattling the windows in their frames, and a sullen haze was hiding the leaden sky. As unsatisfactory a specimen of the English spring as one could very well desire. To make things better, it was half-holiday. Not that it much mattered to the young gentleman who was seated in the schoolroom; it was no half-holiday to him. A rather tall lad, some fourteen years of age, broad and strongly built. This was Bertie Bailey. Master Bertie Bailey was kept in; and the outrage this was to his feelings was altogether too deep for words. To keep him in!--no wonder the heavens frowned at such a crime!