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This was satisfactory, and so these adventures were carried out.

Then Tom became Robin Hood again, and was allowed by the treacherous nun to bleed his strength away through his neglected wound.

And at last Joe, representing a whole tribe of weeping outlaws, dragged him sadly forth, gave his bow into his feeble hands, and Tom said, "Where this arrow falls, there bury poor Robin Hood under the greenwood tree." Then he shot the arrow and fell back and would have died, but he lit on a nettle and sprang up too gaily for a corpse.

The boys dressed themselves, hid their accoutrements, and went off grieving that there were no outlaws any more, and wondering what modern civilization could claim to have done to compensate for their loss.

They said they would rather be outlaws a year in Sherwood Forest than President of the United States forever.

AT half-past nine, that night, Tom and Sid were sent to bed, as usual.

They said their prayers, and Sid was soon asleep.

Tom lay awake and waited, in restless impatience.

When it seemed to him that it must be nearly daylight, he heard the clock strike ten! This was despair.

He would have tossed and fidgeted, as his nerves demanded, but he was afraid he might wake Sid.

So he lay still, and stared up into the dark.

Everything was dismally still.

By and by, out of the stillness, little, scarcely perceptible noises began to emphasize themselves.

The ticking of the clock began to bring itself into notice.

Old beams began to crack mysteriously.

The stairs creaked faintly.

Evidently spirits were abroad.

A measured, muffled snore issued from Aunt Polly's chamber.

And now the tiresome chirping of a cricket that no human ingenuity could locate, began.

Next the ghastly ticking of a death-watch in the wall at the bed's head made Tom shudder-it meant that somebody's days were numbered.

Then the howl of a far-off dog rose on the night air, and was answered by a fainter howl from a remoter distance.

Tom was in an agony.

CHAPTER IX

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