ught Jem. "How it do ache!"

Then he began to think about Sally, and what she would say or do when
she found that he did not come back.

Just at the same time Don was reflecting upon his life of late, and how
discontented he had been, and how he had longed to go away, while now he
felt as if he would give anything to be back on his old stool in the
office, writing hard, and trying his best to be satisfied with what
seemed to be a peaceful, happy life.

A terrible sensation of despair came over him, and the idea of being
dragged off to a ship, and carried right away, was unbearable. What
were glorious foreign lands with their wonders to one who would be
thought of as a cowardly thief?

As he leaned against a wall there in the darkness his busy brain
pictured his stern-looking uncle telling his weeping mother that it was
a disgrace to her to mourn over the loss of a son who could be guilty of
such a crime, and then run away to avoid his punishment.

"Oh! If I had only been a little wiser," thought Don, "how much happier
I might have been."

Then he forced himself to think out a way of escape, a little further
conversation with Jem making him feel that he must depend upon himself,
for poor Jem's injury seemed to make him at times confused; in fact, he
quite startled his fellow-prisoner by exclaiming suddenly,--

"Now where did I put them keys?"

"Jem!"

"Eh? All right, Sally. 'Tarn't daylight yet."

"Jem, my lad, don't you know where you are?"

"Don't I tell you? Phew! My head. You there, Mas' Don?"

"Yes, Jem. How are you?"

"Oh, lively, sir, lively; been asleep, I think. Keep a good heart, Mas'
Don, and--"

"Hist! Here they come," cried Don, as he saw the gleam of a light
through the cracks of the door. "Jem, do you think you could make a
dash of it as soon as they open the door?"

"No, Mas' Don, not now. My head's all of a boom-whooz, and I seem to
have no use in my legs."

"Oh!" ejaculated Don despairingly.

"But never you mind me, my lad. You make a run for it, dive down low as
soon as the door's open. That's how to get away."

_Cling_! _clang_!

Two bolts were shot back and a flood--or after the intense darkness what
seemed to be a flood--of light flashed into the cellar, as the bluff man
entered with another bearing the lanthorn. Then there was a great deal
of shuffling of feet as if heavy loads were being borne down some stone
steps; and as Don looked eagerly at the party, i