Dick went down to the swamp, and chose a grassy spot about twenty feat from the largest pool. Here with his knife he cut away a patch of turf about a couple of feet across; then he went to work with his wooden spade on the soft earth below. In a short time Chippy joined him, and the two scouts had soon scraped a hole some thirty inches deep. From the sides of the hole water began to trickle in freely, and a muddy pool formed in the hollow. Dick now took the billy, and carefully baled the dirty water out. A fresh pool gathered, not so dirty as the first, but still far from clean. This, too, was baled out, and a third gathering also. Then the water came in clear and cool and sweet, and the scouts were able to drink freely. Chippy was warm in his praise of this excellent dodge, when suddenly he stopped, caught up the wooden spade, and, with a single grunt of 'Brekfus ahoy!' was gone. His eye, ever on the alert, had marked a small figure scuttling along in the undergrowth of the coppice, and he was in hot pursuit. In two minutes he was back with a fat hedgehog. 'Ye've tasted this afore,' he said. 'How about another try?' 'Good for you, Chippy!' cried Dick; 'it was first-rate. Will you cook it the same way?' 'There ain't none better,' replied the Raven, and set to work at once to prepare and cook the prey of his spade. In the end the scouts made an excellent breakfast. They enjoyed hedgehog done to a turn--or, rather, to a moment, as there was no turning in the matter--the remains of Mrs. Hardy's sandwiches, and a billy of water drawn from their own well. The well and the breakfast took some time, and their start was much later than they had intended that it should be. But, on the other hand, there were the blankets to dry, and between the sun and the fire the latter were quite dry enough to pack away in the haversacks when the scouts were ready to move. Dick's foot had become quite easy during the night's rest, but after a couple of miles the cut began to let him know that it was there. By the time they had covered four miles it was very painful, and he was limping a little. Then they struck a canal on the side opposite to the towpath, and they sat down beside it on a grassy bank and cooled off a little before they stripped for a good swim in the clear water. When Dick took off his shoe and stocking, the Raven whistled and looked uneasy. The flesh all round the cut looked red and angry, and the heel was sore to the touch. 'Isn't it a nuisance,' groaned Dick, 'for a jolly awkward cut like that to come in and make the going bad for me? But I'll stick it out, Chippy. It's the last day, and I'll hobble through somehow and finish the tramp.' 'We'll pass a little town 'bout a mile again, accordin' to the map,' said the Raven, 'an' there we'll get some vaseline.' 'Good plan,' said Dick; 'that's splendid stuff for a cut.'