“It’s all up, Bill,” cried Toby; “drop the kid, and show ’em your heels.” With this parting advice, Mr. Crackit, preferring the chance of being shot by his friend to the certainty of being taken by his enemies, fairly turned tail, and darted off at full speed. Sikes clenched his teeth, took one look round, threw over the prostrate form of Oliver the cape in which he had been hurriedly muffled, ran along the front of the hedge, as if to distract the attention of those behind from the spot where the boy lay, paused for a second before another hedge which met it at right angles, and whirling his pistol high into the air, cleared it at a bound, and was gone. “Ho, ho, there!” cried a tremulous voice in the rear. “Pincher, Neptune, come here, come here!” The dogs, which, in common with their masters, seemed to have no particular relish for the sport in which they were engaged, readily answered to this command: and three men, who had by this time advanced some distance into the field, stopped to take counsel together. “My advice, or, leastways, I should say, my _orders_, is,” said the fattest man of the party, “that we ’mediately go home again.” “I am agreeable to anything which is agreeable to Mr. Giles,” said a shorter man, who was by no means of a slim figure, and who was very pale in the face, and very polite, as frightened men frequently are. “I shouldn’t wish to appear ill-mannered, gentlemen,” said the third, who had called the dogs back, “Mr. Giles ought to know.” “Certainly,” replied the shorter man; “and whatever Mr. Giles says it isn’t our place to contradict him. No, no, I know my sitiwation,—thank my stars, I know my sitiwation.” To tell the truth, the little man _did_ seem to know his situation, and to know perfectly well that it was by no means a desirable one, for his teeth chattered in his head as he spoke. “You are afraid, Brittles,” said Mr. Giles. “I a’n’t,” said Brittles. “You are,” said Giles. “You’re a falsehood, Mr. Giles,” said Brittles. “You’re a lie, Brittles,” said Mr. Giles. Now, these four retorts arose from Mr. Giles’s taunt, and Mr. Giles’s taunt had arisen from his indignation at having the responsibility of going home again imposed upon himself under cover of a compliment. The third man brought the dispute to a close most philosophically. “I’ll tell you what it is, gentlemen,” said he, “we’re all afraid.” “Speak for yourself, sir,” said Mr. Giles, who was the palest of the party. “So I do,” replied the man. “It’s natural and proper to be afraid, under such circumstances. _I_ am.” “So am I,” said Brittles; “only there’s no call to tell a man he is, so bounceably.”