not been broken by his clothes catching on the branches of a large tree.

Cruel people are, very often, cowardly too. When the men saw their
leader first wounded, and then thrown down, they all ran away.

Mounting their horses, they rode off as fast as they could, leaving Tom
Loker lying on the ground wounded and groaning with pain.

As soon as Phineas and the others saw that the wicked men had really
ridden away, they climbed down, meaning to walk along the road till they
met Simeon.

They had just reached the bottom, when they saw him coming back with the
waggon and two other men.

'Now we are safe,' cried Phineas joyfully.

'Well, do stop then,' said Eliza, 'and do something for that poor man.
He is groaning dreadfully.'

'It would be no more than Christian,' said George. 'Let us take him with
us.'

They lifted the wounded man gently, as if he had been a friend instead
of a cruel enemy, and laid him in the waggon. Then they all set out once
more.

[Illustration]

A drive of about an hour brought them to a neat farm-house. There the