mpt at escape. But
the prisoner was by this time far too stiff and numb after the
constriction of the ropes to make any such attempt; it was as much as he
could achieve to stagger to the apology for a bed, upon which he flung
himself at full length. He was utterly exhausted, and his body had
scarcely touched the straw before he was fast asleep, in which condition
he remained for nearly twenty-four hours.

When he awoke he found that a coarse meal had been left for him, while
the bucket had been filled with water; so he made a hearty meal, and
then proceeded to examine his cell by the light of the declining sun.
His search, however, was fruitless: there was nothing out of which he
might construct a key, as he had done at Asan; the windows were scarcely
six inches square; in short, escape appeared an impossibility.

And now many days dragged out their slow length in dreary monotony; day
after day his custodians brought him a supply of food; but, strangely
enough, the time passed without his being subjected to indignity and
torment for the amusement of the pirates, as he had fully expected might
be the case. Possibly they were absent on some foray, and had postponed
their entertainment until their return. Whatever might be the reason,
however, the days slid past, without molestation to him, and lengthened
into weeks, until, by the notches which he scored every morning on the
edge of his bed, Frobisher found that he had been just thirteen weeks in
confinement. Thirteen weeks!--And, so far as he could tell, no attempt
had been made by the Chinese authorities to rescue him or obtain his
release; at any rate, there had been no sounds of fighting, no report of
guns from the river; and he was being slowly forced to the conclusion
that his very existence had been forgotten, or else that it was thought
not worth while to throw away any more valuable Chinese lives in order
to effect the rescue of so unimportant a personage as an English
mercenary.

Then, one morning, when Frobisher awoke and commenced to dress--for he
had made a practice of undressing at night, that he might feel the
cleaner and more refreshed next day--he discovered, to his astonishment,
that his boots had mysteriously disappeared during the night. He
searched everywhere for them, but they were nowhere to be found. For
whatever reason--and he puzzled himself to think of a satisfactory one--
his foot-gear was undoubtedly missing, and there was an end of th