"Well, no, that's the odd part of it to me," said Felix. "She says that two men wanted her to train for the stage, singing and dancing. But she's not a bit pretty--just a kiddie, all legs and arms, with the most sorrowful eyes--like a lost dog." Dawkes shrugged his shoulders, and turned away as if from a hopeless idiot. "What d'you want to do with her?" he asked. "She's been hurt--pretty badly," said Felix, timidly. "I want you to let her spend the night here in the hay." "Where is she?" "Close by here." "Bring her along, so's I can 'ave a squint at her." Felix obeyed. A fire blazed in the night-watchman's cabin, and by his instructions he seated Rona on a chair in front of it. She was scared and nervous, hardly able to control herself, what with bodily pain and mental apprehension. "You tyke my tip," said Comrade Dawkes, after a prolonged scrutiny. "Tyke and get shut of 'er to-night, and now. Send her to the orsepital, they'll look after 'er there. Go an' saddle yourself with a girl, there'll never be no end to it." Rona did not speak, but her "lost dog" eyes besought Felix. "If she's no better in the morning, I must," he said, reluctantly. "But, you see, if she goes to the hospital, ten to one those ruffians will find her; and he's her uncle--they would have to let him take her away. There's nobody but me to speak for her, and nobody will believe me on oath in a police-court. The end of it would be my being jugged again, for abduction, and she handed over to ruin." Dawkes nodded slowly. He saw the desperate nature of their plight. Once caught, they would have no chance at all. "If that's the way of it, and you go to be off, my advice to you both is--be off, and look sharp about it," said he. "Don't hang around here all night." Felix made a gesture of despair. "But she can't travel, and we have no money," he said, resentfully. "We'd better chuck ourselves in there, and have done with it." "She can travel," said Dawkes. "How, then?" "In a canal boat." They regarded him earnestly. "Anywhere you thought of making for?" he asked. Felix told him of the Convent School in the North Riding. "First place they'll look for her," said Dawkes, reflectively. "Get there slow, is my advice. It'll do you no 'arm if you go a bit roundabout, what I can see of it. My son-in-law is starting to-night for Basingstoke. His boy's took and got pneumony. If you drove the boss," he said to Felix, "I expect he'd pay yer syme as he paid 'im. And you'd get to Basingstoke with a few shillin's in yer pocket--which would be all to the good, seemin'ly." For the first time a glimmer of hope lit up the heart of Felix. The suggestion was eminently practical. Unless some quite unlooked-for clew were given nobody would think of searching for them in a canal barge. "Think he'd take me on, Comrade? I'm a green hand," he said, "but I can manage horses all right. I'm used to them."