which I said, believing it was true, amounted to twelve hundred dozen;
and an appointment was made for us to meet at Dipwell Farm, to assist in
consuming it, in my honour and my father's. That matter settled, I felt
myself rolling over and over at a great rate, and clasping a juniper
tree. The horses had trenched from the chalk road on to the downs. I
had been shot out. Heriot and Salter had jumped out--Heriot to look
after me; but Saddlebank and the coachman were driving at a great rate
over the dark slope. Salter felt some anxiety concerning his father's
horses, so we left him to pursue them, and walked on laughing, Heriot
praising me for my pluck.

'I say good-bye to you to-night, Richie,' said he. 'We're certain to
meet again. I shall go to a military school. Mind you enter a cavalry
regiment when you're man enough. Look in the Army List, you'll find me
there. My aunt shall make a journey and call on you while you're at
Rippenger's, so you shan't be quite lonely.'

To my grief, I discovered that Heriot had resolved he would not return to
school.

'You'll get thrashed,' he said; ' I can't help it: I hope you've grown
tough by this time. I can't stay here. I feel more like a dog than a
man in that house now. I'll see you back safe. No crying, young
cornet!'

We had lost the sound of the carriage. Heriot fell to musing. He
remarked that the accident took away from Mr. Salter the responsibility
of delivering him at Surrey House, but that he, Heriot, was bound, for
Mr. Salter's sake, to conduct me to the doors; an unintelligible
refinement of reasoning, to my wits. We reached our town between two and