"Now stand by with your nets," he answered, "and you will soon pull up enough fish for your suppers." As he spoke, the lads saw a number of small fish attracted by the light to the surface of the water; and, following his advice, in a short time a considerable quantity were caught. "This is not proper sunning," he observed: "if I had had such a lantern as we use in the north, we should have caught far larger fish. It should be made watertight, and then, when lowered down close to the net, the fish are so eager to come and see the cause of the brightness, thinking, maybe, that the sun has come down to pay them a visit, that they swim right against the net, and are caught in great numbers. That is what we call sunning in the north." "I heard a voice!" exclaimed Smedley, as Master Pearson ceased speaking. "There!--there again! It's the keepers as sure as we are living men!" "Hold your tongue!" exclaimed Master Pearson somewhat sharply. "Here, give me the oars; we will soon distance the keepers, if so be that they are coming this way. You're right, I believe, though." Taking the oars in his hands, he sent the boat through the water at a rate she had seldom moved before. The noise of the oars attracted the keepers, who rushed down to the water just in time to see the boat turning a reach of the river. They hurried along the bank for some distance, shouting to those in her to stop--an order not very likely to be obeyed. So vigorously did Pearson ply the oars, that there seemed every probability of the boat escaping its pursuers. Still the latter continued to chase along the banks. "You must take the consequences, then," exclaimed a voice, and directly afterwards a shot whistled over their heads. 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."