, you will be able to give us some
advice as to how we had best manage.'

"So that is how it stands, your honour."

"And now, tell us how you got away, Mike. You may guess how
surprised we were, when we first made you out, believing that you
were safe under lock and key at Harwich."

"The matter was easy enough," Mike said. "It took me two or three
days to get to understand the position of the place, with water
all round it except on one side; and it was plain that, if I were
to start running, it is little chance I should have if I did not
hit upon the right road. Luckily, they were mounting some cannon
the day after you were taken away. We were ordered to go out and
lend a hand, so it was not long before I learnt enough to know
which road I ought to take. I was always a good runner, your
honour, and many a prize have I carried off, at fairs in the old
country, before troubles began. So it seemed to me that, if I
could have anything of a start, I ought to be able to get off.

"There was nearly half a mile betwixt the town and the place where
the narrow ground, at whose end it stood, widened out into the
country. If I could only hold my own, as far as that, I could take
to the woods and lanes and save myself.

"A guard of soldiers, with muskets and bayonets, went out with us,
and at the end of the second day I managed to slip off, and hide
behind a pile of cannonballs. The rest assembled at a spot about
fifty yards away, to be counted before they marched to prison
again. As soon as the others had got there, and the guards had
gathered round, I went off as hard as I could tear. And a good
start I should have got, if it hadn't been that a sentry on a fort
close by fired his piece at me. Still, I had a good hundred yards'
start.

"The guards set to, to run after me, and when they got in sight of
me fired their guns; but they were flurried, and the bullets flew
past without one of them touching me. Then I felt pretty safe. If
they stopped to load their muskets, I should get clean away. If,
as I expected, they would not stop for that, they would not have a
chance with me, carrying their muskets and cartridge boxes and
belts. I had taken off my coatee and boots, while I was waiting
for the start, and went up the hill like a deer.

"I did not look round, till I got to the top. Then I found that I
had gained a hundred yards of them. I doubled down a lane, at
once, and then struck through some orchards; and ran, without