being most anxious not to start until
darkness should so far have settled down upon the scene as to allow of
his smuggling the cane-knives and canvas jackets in under the grass in
the waggon without detection.

This was at length successfully managed, and, first taking a careful
look all round the hut, to see that they were leaving nothing behind
them which might possibly prove useful, they clambered into the cart,
and drove slowly off.

Night had by this time fairly set in; the stars were just beginning to
peep out from the deepening blue of the cloudless vault above them, and
the moon, in her first quarter, and hanging almost in the zenith, was
already flooding the scene with her soft silvery radiance. It promised
to be a magnificent night for their enterprise, though excessively close
and hot; and as they turned into the main road leading into Havana, and
left the estate fairly behind them, George and the lad Tom felt their
spirits rising and their pulses bounding with joyous anticipation of a
speedy return to freedom.

Whilst harnessing the mules, Leicester had rapidly turned over in his
mind the _pros_ and _cons_ of the situation, and had come to the
conclusion that it would be necessary in the first instance to proceed
some three or four miles on the road toward Havana. This necessity
arose from the circumstance that the planter's house stood upon a slight
eminence commanding a perfect view of the road for that distance, and as
Leicester could not possibly be sure that some one might not be idly
watching, from the verandah, the progress of the waggon as long as it
remained in view, he deemed it only common prudence to keep to the road
until he had passed completely out of the range of any such chance
watchers. This done, he intended to turn sharp off and make the best of
his way southward, utilising the waggon and mules for as great a
distance as possible, and then abandoning them and pressing forward on
foot. The distance which they would have to travel was not very great,
the island being, according to such information as had been available to
him, only some twelve and a half Spanish leagues, or about thirty
English miles wide at that part. Thus, if they were fortunate in their
choice of a route, so as to be able to use the waggon for the whole
distance, they might succeed in reaching the southern shore of the
island before their escape was so much as suspected.

George explained all this to Tom as the