de amongst the
nettles that grew beneath.

"Free!" he exclaimed. "Now which way?"

He had not much choice in the first place, for he remembered that there
would be the moat to cross, and the probabilities were that there would
only be one path. After that he saw his way clearly, and that was
towards the sun, for he knew that if he made straight for that point he
would be going by midday direct for the sea.

That was his goal. Once he could reach the cliffs and get down on the
shore, he meant to seize the first boat he met with, get afloat, and
trust to fortune for the rest.

For the first few moments Hilary kept close to the house, but,
considering that a bold effort was the only one likely to succeed, he
walked out straight to the moat, hesitated a moment as to whether he
should leap in and swim or wade across, and ended by walking sharply
along its brink till it turned off at right angles, and he now saw a
sandstone bridge facing the entry of a large, old-fashioned hall, that
had evidently gone to ruin, and which, from the outside aspect, seemed
to be uninhabited, for a more thorough aspect of desolation it was
impossible to imagine.

There was not a soul in view as he walked sharply away till he reached
the crumbling bridge, which he crossed, and then, finding that the road
led along by the far side of the moat, he did not pause to think, but,
trusting to the high hedge by which it was bordered and the wilderness
of trees that had sprung up between the road and the moat to conceal
him, he went right on, his way being a little east of south.

"I wonder whether old Allstone has given the alarm?" he said half aloud,
as he placed the cutlass in his belt. "They'll have to run fast to
catch me now. Hallo! what's that?"

_That_ was a piercing scream, followed by loud cries of "Help! Papa--
help!"

Hilary had made his escape, and he had nothing to do now but make
straight for the sea; but that cry stopped him on the instant. It
evidently came from the moat behind him, and sounded to him as if some
one had fallen in; he thought as he ran, for without a moment's
hesitation he forced his way through the old hedge, dashed in amongst
the clumps of hawthorn and hornbeam scrub, making straight for the moat,
where he saw a sight which caused him to increase his pace and make a
running dash right to the water, where the next moment he was swimming
towards where Adela Norland was struggling feebly for her life.

Hil