pleased. They could only kill me, and there would be an end of it;
but they would send her to Rome for a slave, and then she would see
how she liked being cuffed and beaten, all day."

"And you are hungry, now?" John asked.

"I am pretty near always hungry," the boy said.

"Well, come along with me, then. I have got a little room to
myself, and you shall have as much to eat as you like."

The room John occupied had formerly been a loft over a stable, in
the rear of the house in which Josephus now lodged; and it was
reached by a ladder from the outside. He had shared it, at first,
with two of his comrades; but these had both fallen, during the
siege. After seeing the boy up into it, John went to the house and
procured him an abundant meal; and took it, with a small horn of
water, back to his quarters.

"Here's plenty for you to eat, Jonas, but not much to drink. We are
all on short allowance, the same as the rest of the people; and I
am afraid that won't last long."

There was a twinkle of amusement in the boy's face but, without a
word, he set to work at the food, eating ravenously all that John
had brought him. The latter was surprised to see that he did not
touch the water; for he thought that if his stepmother deprived him
of food, of which there was abundance, she would all the more
deprive him of water, of which the ration to each person was so
scanty.

"Now," John said, "you had better throw away that bit of sackcloth,
and take this garment. It belonged to a comrade of mine, who has
been killed."

"There's too much of it," the boy said. "If you don't mind my
tearing it in half, I will take it."

"Do as you like with it," John replied; and the boy tore the long
strip of cotton in two, and wrapped half of it round his loins.

"Now," he said, "what do you want to ask me?"

"They tell me, Jonas, that you are a first-rate climber, and can go
anywhere?"

The boy nodded.

"I can get about, I can. I have been tending goats, pretty well
ever since I could walk and, where they can go, I can."

"I want to know, in the first place, whether there is any possible
way by which one can get up and down from this place, except by the
road through the wall?"

The boy was silent.

"Now look here, Jonas," John went on, feeling sure that the lad
could tell something, if he would, "if you could point out a way
down, the governor would be very pleased; and as long as the siege
lasts you can live here with me, and h