ch his former experience and
prejudice assured him was the only safe place in the vicinity, was by the
top. To achieve such a result was a difficult piece of gymnastics, even
if it could have been performed without reference to any spectators; but
to accomplish it without being seen by any of the party below was as near
an impossibility as any impracticable thing could be.

The rebels, both civil and military, were now out of sight; but he
doubted not from his eyrie on the ridge-pole of the house, if he could
reach it, they could all be seen. Somers was as prudent as he was bold,
and he decided not to run any risks until necessity should absolutely
compel such a course. Quietly ensconcing himself beneath the window,
where he could hear what transpired below, he waited the issue; but he
had studied out the precise steps which it would be necessary for him to
take in order to reach the roof of the house. He knew exactly where his
right and his left foot were to be successfully planted to achieve his
purpose, when it could no longer be postponed. But he indulged a faint
hope that the rebels would widen the area of their search, and finally
abandon it when it should be unsuccessful.

A long quarter of an hour elapsed--long enough to be an hour's time as
its ordinary flow is measured; so burdened with intense anxiety was each
second that made up its sum total. The rebels, assisted by the farmer and
his wife, who were now hardly less zealous than the soldiers, had
examined every hole and corner in the vicinity of the house, without
finding the escaped prisoner.

"I tell you, he must be in the house," said the sergeant, as the party
paused under the window on their return to the front of the house.

"Of course, ye kin look in the house if yer like; but I see 'em both go
out of the door with yer," persisted the farmer.

"We will search the house," added the sergeant resolutely.

"Yer kin, if yer like; but I hope yer won't lose the other feller while
ye're looking for this one."

"I told Gordon to shoot him if he attempted to get away; and I can trust
Gordon."

They passed out of hearing, and Somers felt that his time had come. But,
as we have several times before had occasion to remark, strategy is
successful in one only by the blunders and inertness of the other; and he
cherished with increased enthusiasm his project of hiding in the chimney.
Neither the farmer nor the soldiers were trained detectives, and the
blunder