uld
attempt flight too late, and longing to save the heartbroken father from
the shame of seeing his son's arrest and imprisonment, she drew the
shaking thief aside and in a whisper bade him go at once to Sleary, the
proprietor of the circus to which her father had once belonged. She told
him where the circus was to be found at that season of the year, and
bade him ask Sleary to hide him for her sake till she came. Tom obeyed.
He disappeared that night, and later Sissy told his father what she had
done.

Mr. Gradgrind, with Sissy and Louisa, followed as soon as possible,
intending to get his son to the nearest seaport and so out of the
country on a vessel, for he knew that soon he himself, Tom's father,
would be questioned and obliged to tell the truth. They traveled all
night, and at length reached the town where the circus showed.

Sleary, for Sissy's sake, had provided Tom with a disguise in which not
even his father recognized him. He had blacked his sullen face and
dressed him in a moth-eaten greatcoat and a mad cocked hat, in which
attire he played the role of a black servant in the performance. Tom met
them, grimy and defiant, ashamed to meet Louisa's eyes, brazen to his
father, anxious only to be saved from his deserved punishment.

A seaport was but three hours away. He was soon dressed and plans for
his departure were completed. But at the last moment danger appeared. It
came in the person of the porter of Bounderby's bank, who had all along
suspected Tom. He had watched the Gradgrind house, followed its master
when he left and now laid hands on Tom, vowing he would take him back to
Coketown.

In this moment of the father's despair, Sleary the showman saved the day
for the shivering thief. He agreed with the porter that as Tom was
guilty of a crime he must certainly go with him, and he offered,
moreover, to drive the captor and his prisoner at once to the nearest
railroad station. He winked at Sissy as he proposed this, and she was
not alarmed. The porter accepted the proposal at once, but he did not
guess what the showman had in mind.

Sleary's horse was an educated horse. At a certain word from its owner
it would stop and begin to dance, and would not budge from the spot till
he gave the command in a particular way. He had an educated dog, also,
that would do anything it was told. With this horse hitched to the
carriage and this dog trotting innocently behind, the showman set off
with the porter and To