The devil has a man's heart all his own,
whenever hope deserts it, and you want to do wickedness just because it
_is_ wickedness. For three weeks before I made my escape, it was all
I could do not to dash the turnkey's brains out when he made his night
round. I told my comrade--the man I was chained to--what I felt; and he
said, 'We all go through that at first; but when you 're some years here
you 'll not care for that or anything.' I believe it was the terror of
coming to that condition made me try to escape. I don't know that I ever
felt the same ecstasy of delight that I felt as I found myself swimming
in that fresh cold sea in the silence of a calm starry night. I 'm sure
it will be a memory that will last my lifetime. I thought of you all,--I
thought of long ago, of our happy evenings; and I pictured to my mind
the way we used to sit around the fire, and I wondered what had become
of my place. Was I ever remembered? Was I spoken of? Could it be that
at that very moment some one was asking, where was poor Jack? And how I
wished you might all know that my last thoughts were upon you; that it
was the dear old long ago was before me to the last. I was seventeen
hours in the water. When they picked me up I was senseless from a
sun-stroke; for the corks floated me long after I gave up swimming. I
was so ill when I landed that I went to hospital; but there was little
care given to the sick, and I left it when I was able to walk, and came
on here. Talk of luck; but I ask you was there ever such a piece of
fortune befell a man?"

L'Estrange could not speak as he gazed on the poor fellow, over whose
worn and wasted features joy had lighted up a look of delight that
imparted an almost angelic elevation to his face.

"But can I go back like this?" asked he, sorrowfully, as he looked down
at his ragged clothes and broken shoes.

"I have thought of all that There is nothing to be had here ready but
Montenegrin costume, so the landlord tells me, and you will have to
figure in something very picturesque."

"Cannot I get a sailor's jacket and trousers?"

"Aye, of Dalmatian cut and color; but they 'll not become you as well as
that green velvet attila and the loose hose of the mountaineer. Try if
you can't take a sleep now; and when you awake you 'll find your new rig
in that room yonder, where there 's a bath ready for you. I 'll go
down the town, meanwhile, and do a few commissions, and we will set out
homewards when you 'r