The door was closed, the lock clicked again, and when he ventured to look the two men were stealing away towards the quarry.

The boy crept after them to the extent of the trunk behind which he was hidden, and when he looked again they had disappeared.

Creeping silently in the shadows and amongst the scrub ferns, Dick followed until, resting a moment, he heard distinctly the words: 'Why did you hit him again?
Good God! did you want to kill him ?' The voice was Ephraim Shine's.
'No.

That won't kill him.

Don't be so blasted chicken-hearted I didn't want to be seen, you ass!' Dick knew the voice for that of Joe Rogers, whose face he had seen in the moonlight.
'The lick I gave him was enough; it must 'a' stunned him.' Shine spoke in a low voice.
'D'yer think he recognised you ?' asked Rogers hoarsely.
'No, I was in the shadder.