which had been broken off, and this we placed under a trickle of fresh
water--the dipper having been carried off in the boat.

"The rascals have taken the coach lamp with them," said George. "We
shall have to feel our way about as best we can."

Almost as he spoke my foot struck against something which slid along
the rock with a metallic clatter, and stooping down, to my joy I picked
up the guard's clasp-knife, which had also been overlooked by the
drunken gang at the time of their departure. The find gave us
considerable satisfaction, as the knife had proved of great service in
many ways, and we were already contemplating the necessity of tearing
the pheasant apart with our fingers.

The meal was no more appetizing than the one which had preceded it on
the previous evening. How I longed for a morsel of bread and salt!
The last defect I tried to rectify by dipping my meat in salt water;
but the result was not all that could be desired, and Woodley laughed
at the wry faces which I pulled.

However, the flesh of the bird, followed by a mince-pie, and an apple
by way of dessert, certainly appeased our hunger, and in doing so
enabled us to face our position with more fortitude. Reclining on the
hard rock as near as we could get to the smouldering fire, we went over
the whole of our strange adventure from the moment the convicts had
seized the coach to the time they had left us in the boat.

"We might be worse off," said George. "I believe that if they'd tied
us up in that copse, as that rascal Rodwood suggested, we should have
been frozen stiff by morning. I wonder how poor Tom got on! That was
a nasty fall of his; I heard his head strike on the hard ground, and I
made sure he'd be picked up dead. Them warders, too--I hope the warmth
of the straw and the shelter of the cottage kept them alive."

"I believe those villains would have killed any one who had tried to
stop them," I remarked. "Do you remember that fellow close to me
digging out that stone with his fingers in the pit on the cliff, when
the sheep made that false alarm? The way he did it made me tremble. I
believe he'd have brained some one with it if we really had been
surrounded."

"Well, the whole lot of them are taken by this time, dead or alive; at
least that's my belief," answered George. "They were crazy with drink,
and would walk straight into the net. That man we heard gallop into
the village last night may have given the alarm, and I'