t going to bed. Through her chamber lay
the road to glory and Clare Market, and breathlessly did Sheppard watch
till the candle should be extinguished and the maid silenced in sleep.
In his anxiety he must tarry--tarry; and for a weary hour he kicked his
heels upon the leads, ambition still too uncertain for quietude. Yet
he could not but catch a solace from his splendid craft. Said he to
himself: 'Am I not the most accomplished slip-string the world has
known? The broken wall of every round house in town attests my bravery.
Light-limbed though I be, have I not forced the impregnable Castle
itself? And my enemies--are they not to-day writhing in distress ? The
head of Blueskin, that pitiful thief, quivers in the noose; and Jonathan
Wild bleeds at the throat from the dregs of a coward's courage. What a
triumph shall be mine when the Keeper finds the stronghold tenantless!'

Now, unnumbered were the affronts he had suffered from the Keeper's
impertinence, and he chuckled aloud at his own witty rejoinder. Only two
days since the Gaoler had caught him tampering with his irons. 'Young
man,' he had said, 'I see what you have been doing, but the affair
betwixt us stands thus: It is your business to make your escape, and
mine to take care you shall not.' Jack had answered coolly enough: 'Then
let's both mind our own business.' And it was to some purpose that he
had minded his. The letter to his baffled guardian, already sketched
in his mind, tickled him afresh, when suddenly he leaps to his feet and
begins to force the garret window.

The turner's maid was a heavy sleeper, and Sheppard crept from her
garret to the twisted stair in peace. Once, on a lower floor, his heart
beat faster at the trumpetings of the turner's nose, but he knew no
check until he reached the street door. The bolt was withdrawn in an
instant, but the lock was turned, and the key nowhere to be found.
However, though the risk of disturbance was greater than in Newgate,
the task was light enough: and with an iron link from his fetter, and a
rusty nail which had served him bravely, the box was wrenched off in a
trice, and Sheppard stood unattended in the Old Bailey. At first he was
minded to make for his ancient haunts, or to conceal himself within the
Liberty of Westminster; but the fetter-locks were still upon his
legs, and he knew that detection would be easy as long as he was thus
embarrassed. Wherefore, weary and an-hungered, he turned his steps
northwar