ice and snow it had
seemed certain death to quit the hard hospitality of the prison. It was
better to be alive inside than dead outside. But now the stirrings of life
without stirred the life within towards freedom, and I began to plan my
way.

CHAPTER XXIV

HOW I CAME ACROSS ONE AT AMPERDOO

I had worked hard at my carvings, and had become both a better craftsman
and a keener bargainer, and so had managed to accumulate a small store of
money. I could see my way without much difficulty over the first high
wooden stockade, but so far I could not see how to pass the numberless
sentries that patrolled constantly between it and the outer fence.

And while I was still striving to surmount this difficulty in my own mind,
which would I knew be still more difficult in actual fact, that occurred
which upset all my plans and tied me to the prison for many a day.

Among the new-comers one day was one evidently sick or sorely wounded. His
party, we heard, had come up by barge from the coast. The hospital was
full, and they made a pallet for the sick man in a corner of our long room.

He lay for the most part with his face to the wall, and seemed much broken
with the journey.

I had passed him more than once with no more than the glimpse of a white
face. An attendant from the hospital looked in now and again, at long
intervals, to minister to his wants. The sufferer showed no sign of
requiring or wishing anything more, and while his forlornness troubled me,
I did not see that I could be of any service to him.

It was about the third day after his arrival that I caught his eye fixed on
me, and it seemed to me with knowledge. I went across and bent over him,
then fell quickly to my knees beside him.

"Le Marchant! Is it possible?"

It was Carette's youngest brother, Helier.

"All that's left of him,--hull damaged," he said, with a feeble show of
spirit.

"What's wrong?"

"A shot 'twixt wind and water--leaking a bit."

"Does it hurt you to talk?"

He nodded to save words, but added, "Hurts more not to. Thought you were
dead."

"I suppose so. Now you must lie quiet, and I'll look after you. But tell
me--how were they all in Sercq the last you heard--my mother and
grandfather--and Carette? And how long is it since?"

"A month--all well, far as I know. But we--" with a gloomy shake of the
head--"we are wiped out."

"Your father and brothers?"

"All in same boat--wiped out."

I would have liked to questi