"

So saying I flung the book and struck him a blow on the breast which
sent him reeling back against the rock. And off I went among the
bracken, thanking God for this peril escaped.

As I have often proved many a time since, the road to safety lies often
on the side of danger. Most of the fugitives had made for the hills in
an opposite direction to that towards which the sentinel had pointed. I
went the other way, and hid myself under a broad flat rock near the
roadside, guessing that no one would ever look for lurkers there.

And in so doing I was able to discover what the others would have given
something to be sure of:--that the sentinel's alarm had been a false one
altogether, and that what he took for soldiers was no more than a party
of revellers returning from a harvest dance in high good spirits along
the road. I even recognised some of the familiar faces I had known at
Fanad in the old days, and was sorely tempted to claim acquaintance.

But prudence forbade. As sure as daylight came no effort would be
spared to hunt me down. For had I not the secret of this society in my
own hands, down to the very list of its members? A word from me could
smoke them in their holes like rats in a drain. It was not likely I
should be allowed to remain at large; and when caught next time, I might
promise myself no such good luck as had befallen me to-night.

So I lay low till the road was clear, and then struck north for Fanad,
where I knew nooks and crannies enough to keep me hid, if need be, for a
month to come.

For a week I lodged uncomfortably enough in one of the deep caves that
pierce the coast, which at high tide was unapproachable except by
swimming, and at low so piled up with sea-weed at its mouth as to seem
only a mere hole in the cliff. Here, on a broad ledge high beyond reach
of the tide, I spent the weary hours, living for the most part on sea-
weed, or a chance crab or lobster, cooked at a fire of bracken or hay,
collected at peril of my life in the upper world.

Once as I peeped out I saw a boat cruising along the shore, and
discovered in one of its crew no other than he who had acted as leader
of the gathering of a week ago. So near did they come that I could even
hear their voices.

"You're wastin' your time, captain, over a spalpeen like that. Sure, if
he's alive he's far enough away by this time."

The leader turned to the speaker and said,--

"If I could but catch him he would not tra