"Stories! Ha, yes, stories enough for a lifetime," he ejaculated; and I ran on my way. But I hadn't gone far before my run slackened to a walk, and then to a dawdle; for the prospect ahead of me wasn't alluring, and an idea was taking shape in my mind. If I returned and delivered myself up to authority I didn't know when I should be able to break from captivity again. And the thought of being separated from Jenny wasn't to be borne. I didn't remember having so thoroughly enjoyed myself since my father had left me. And then, too, there was the knowledge that she wanted me to return. She had dismissed me in anger because I hadn't promised to come back to her the next day. Well, somehow I must accomplish what I couldn't promise, and so appease her wrath. I sat down by the road-side on a great pile of stones. I wanted to think. The obvious plan to follow was not to return to school. But where could I pass the night? Though spring was well on its way the night was a cold one, and I didn't relish the thought of spending it in the open. Perhaps I could return and find some corner in the ruin where I could at least shelter from the night air. I looked back at the house. I hadn't left it far behind. A light was glowing faintly in a window facing me. I began to wonder which room that could be; and then I knew. On the other side was the room my father and I had used, and on this side I remembered was another large bedroom with a great four-post bed. It was a room I had climbed to, for the ivy grew thickly beneath it. I supposed Abou was sleeping there. Then suddenly I told myself that Abou would be sleeping in my old room, for I knew Captain Field was in the secret room above, and somehow it seemed to me that Abou would be near him. From what I remembered of that calm and patient voice, Abou must be very necessary to his master with those strange sudden ways of his which already I had had a glimpse of. Then who was sleeping in that room? Why, of course.... But just then I heard some one coming along the road by the way I had already come. With my instinct for concealment I crept behind a pile of stones till he should pass; but I wasn't relieved to hear him make towards me and seat himself on the heap. I had had a glimpse of him as he approached through the dark. All I had seen was that he was carrying a short stout stick. It was some little time before he rose again and moved on; and meanwhile I had heard shufflings and tuggings and whispered oaths as though some difficult or painful operation was in progress, but I didn't dare peer above the stones to investigate. But when at last the fellow got up to go I did peep after him, and was startled to see what had been a two-legged man hobble away with one leg transformed to a wooden stump below the knee. I rubbed my eyes and gazed after him as he melted into the night. But the change was no mere illusion. I could hear the _clop_ of his wooden leg on the hard road.