they'd be laid on our track."

"O' course, zir."

"Then we will not give Saunders the chance."

"I dunno what you mean, zir; but I'm ready for anything you tell me to
do. What is it?"

"Take the dogs with us, man. I believe they'll follow us now."

"Take 'em with us?" panted Pete. "Why, o' course! I never thought o'
that. But we can't, Master Nic; we're locked in."

"The roof's open. Look here, Pete; I'm going to climb out at once. The
dogs will begin to bay at this, but as soon as I'm on the roof, ready to
drop down, you get up, put your hands against the boards, and lay
a-back. Then I'll call them. They'll scramble up, and I'll help them
through. You come last."

"Think they'll do it?" said Pete, panting like one of the hounds.

"I'm sure they will."

"Be worse than the flogging," cried Pete excitedly; "they'll tear all
the skin off my back. But I don't care; I'm ready. They'll leave the
bones."

"Ready, then?" cried Nic. "The moment there's room make a back for the
dogs."

The eager talking excited the great animals, and they began to sniff at
the speakers and growl; but Nic's blood was up, and he was ready to risk
an attack on the chance of his scheme succeeding.

"A dog is a dog, whether it's here or at home, and I know their nature
pretty well."

The next moment he was proving it by leaping to his feet.

"Hey, boys, then!" he cried loudly; "the woods--a run in the woods!"

The dogs sprang round him, and began leaping up, barking excitedly.

"Come on, then," he shouted, though his heart leaped with a choking
sensation at his mouth; and, scrambling up to the opening by means of
the pegs, he was the next minute squeezing himself through, the dogs
bounding up at him as he went, and nearly causing him to fall. For one
moment he felt he was being dragged back, and shuddered at the thought
of what might happen if the excited animals got him down.

But the dread passed away as quickly as it had come. He tore off
another of the shingles to widen the opening, and shouted down into the
shed:

"Come on, then. Come on."

Already the hounds were growing savage in their disappointment, and
baying and growling with tremendous clamour, as they kept on leaping
over each other and dropping back.

But at the words of encouragement from above one of them awoke to the
fact that there was a step all ready in the darkness, and, leaping upon
it, the great creature reached up, got its paws on the s