he saloon to get a drink, first putting the cabman on guard.

"Get down here and keep an eye on this dicky-bird," he ordered. "Slug
him if he tries to make a break."

But the cabman hung back.

"I'm no fightin' man, sorr; an', besides, I don't dare lave me harrses,"
he objected. But the officer broke in angrily.

"What the devil are you afraid of? He's got the clamps on, and couldn't
hurt you if he wanted to. Come down here!"

The little Irishman clambered down from his box reluctantly, with the
reins looped over his arm. When he peered in at the open window of the
carriage the big man had passed beyond the swinging screens of the
saloon entrance and Griswold seized his opportunity quickly.

"What's your job worth, my man?" he whispered.

The cabman snatched a swift glance over his shoulder before he ventured
to answer.

"Don't yez be timptin' a poor man wid a wife an' sivin childer hangin'
to um--don't yez do it, sorr!"

Griswold, the brother-keeping, would have thought twice before opening
any door of temptation for a brother man. But the new Griswold had no
compunctions.

"It's two hundred dollars to you if you can get me away from here before
that red-faced drunkard comes back. Have a runaway--anything! Here's the
money!"

For a single timorous instant the cabman hesitated. Then he took the
roll of money and crammed it into his pocket without looking at it.
Before Griswold could brace himself there was a quick _whish_ of the
whip, a piping cry from the driver, and the horses sprang away at a
reckless gallop, with the little Irishman hanging to the reins and
shouting feebly like a faint-hearted Automedon.

Griswold caught a passing glimpse of the red-faced man wiping his lips
in the doorway of the saloon as the carriage bounded forward; and when
the critical instant came, he was careful to fall out on the riverward
side of the vehicle. It was a desperate expedient, since he could not
wait to choose the favorable moment, and the handcuffs made him
practically helpless. Chance saved the clumsy escape from resulting in a
speedy recapture. When he tumbled out of the lurching carriage he was
hurled violently against something that figured as a wall of solid
masonry and was half stunned by the concussion. None the less, he had
wit enough to lie motionless in the shadow of the wall, and the hue and
cry, augmented by this time to a yelling mob, swept past without
discovering him.

When it was safe to do so,