"Oh Tim, dear Tim, do let us go quick," they kept repeating.

"But master and missy," he explained at last when they would let him
speak, "we can't. Don't you see Mick knows exactly where he left yer,
and he'd be after us in a minute. There's nowhere near here where we
could hide but what he'd find us. You'd only get me a beating, that 'ud
be all about it. No, listen to me. P'raps Mick means to take yer home
straight away, but if he doesn't we must wait a bit till I can find out
what he's after. He's a deep one is Mick."

"Couldn't you run home quick to tell Grandpapa and Grandmamma where us
is?" said Duke. "Grandpapa, and the coachman, and Dymock, and the
gardener--they'd all come to fetch us."

"I dursn't," said Tim. "Not yet; Mick's a deep one. If he thought I'd
run off to tell he'd----"

"What would he do?" they asked breathlessly.

"He'd hide away somehow. 'Twouldn't be so easy to find him. He'll be
back in a moment too--I couldn't get off before he'd be after me. No; we
must wait a bit till I see what he's after."

"Why haven't you runned away before?" asked Pamela. "If he's not your
father, and if you don't like him."

"Nowhere to run to," said Tim simply. "It's not so bad for me. I'm used
to it. It's not like you, master and missy. Diana and me, when you was
up at the top o' the wall, we'd ha' done anything to stop you coming
down."