Produced by Susan Skinner, Chris Curnow, Pamela Patten and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: THE GIRL’S OWN PAPER VOL. XX.—NO. 1003.] MARCH 18, 1899. [PRICE ONE PENNY.] “OUR HERO.” BY AGNES GIBERNE, Author of “Sun, Moon and Stars,” “The Girl at the Dower House,” etc. [Illustration: “PUTTING UP THE PONY AND CART AT A WAYSIDE INN.”] _All rights reserved._] CHAPTER XXV. ROY BARON A FUGITIVE. [Illustration] On the edge of a little clearing in the centre of the wood stood a small square charcoal-burner’s cottage, built of stone. Near behind might be seen a good-sized outhouse or woodhouse; and to one side was the pile of slowly-burning charcoal. Round and about were heaps of unsightly rubbish and of blackened moss. Nobody seemed to be within or at hand. Jean opened the cottage door without difficulty; and when they had passed through, he bolted it in their rear. Then in the darkness he found his way to a corner, struck a light with flint and steel, made a “dip” to burn, and groped anew. The one window was closely shuttered. Roy flung himself upon a small bench, glad to get his breath, and watched the other’s doings curiously. “Are we to stop here?” he asked. “But if the gendarmes come?” “We must circumvent them, M’sieu.” “How? What are you going to do?” Jean was too busy to reply. He produced a blouse, such as would be worn by a French labouring lad, with shirt and trousers to match, and brought them to Roy. “M’sieu must change his clothes,” he said. “Rest afterwards.” “All right,” once more assented Roy, though the cottage was swimming and his ears were buzzing with fatigue. He stood up, and promptly divested himself of what he wore, to assume a different guise. Jean brought from the same corner a small bottle of dark liquid, which he mixed with a little water in a basin, and then dyed Roy’s hair and eyebrows, thereby altering his look to such an extent that even his mother might almost have passed him by. Roy laughed so much under this operation, as to discompose the operator. “Tenez, M’sieu! Taisez-vous, donc, s’il vous plait! M’sieu, I entreat. I assure Monsieur it is no matter for laughter.” “If you knew what it is to be free again, you’d laugh too,” declared Roy, and then his merriment passed into a big yawn. “But I’m awfully sleepy.” “Deux minutes, and Monsieur shall rest. Monsieur is hungry.” Monsieur undoubtedly was, though the craving to lie down was even greater than the craving to eat. Jean handed him a hunch of bread and cheese and a glass of milk; and while Roy was occupied with the same, he proceeded to array himself in holiday costume. He donned an old and shabby but once gorgeous coat, with standing collar and gay buttons, which, as he informed Roy, had many long years before been the best holiday coat of his esteemed grandfather.