morning, took their station
near the fire, and we covered them with a blanket. Though we believed we
had nothing to fear from our prisoners, the two first being bound hand
and foot, and the two last being too weak to move, we nevertheless
resolved that a watch should be kept, and as Gabriel and I had not slept
during the night before, we appointed Roche to keep the first watch.

When I awoke, I felt chilly, and to my astonishment I perceived that our
fire was down. I rose and looked immediately for the prisoners. The two
that we had put within our circle were still snoring heavily, but the
others, whose feet we had not bound on account of their painful bruises,
were gone. I looked for the watch, and found that it was one of the
lawyers, who, having drank too freely of the whisky, had fallen asleep.
The thieves had left the blanket; I touched it; I perceived that it was
yet warm, so that I knew they could not have been gone a long while.

The day was just breaking, and I awoke my companions, the lawyer was
much ashamed of himself, and offered the humblest apologies, and as a
proof of his repentance, he poured on the ground the remainder of the
liquor in his flask. As soon as Gabriel and Roche were up, we searched
in the grass for the foot-prints, which we were not long in finding, and
which conducted us straight to the place where we had left our horses
loose and grazing. Then, for the first time, we perceived that the
horses which were shod, and which belonged to the three lawyers, had had
their shoes taken off, when in possession of the thieves the day before.

By the foot-prints, multiplied in every direction, it was evident that
the fugitives had attempted, though in vain, to seize upon some of our
horses. Following the foot-marks a little farther, brought us to a small
sandy creek, where the track was lost; and on the other side, to our
great astonishment, we saw plainly (at least the appearance seemed to
imply as much), that help had been at hand, and that the thieves had
escaped upon a tall American horse, ambling so lightly, that the four
shoes of the animal were comparatively but feebly marked on the ground.
It seemed, also, that the left foreleg of the animal had been at some
time hurt, for the stopping was not regular, being sometimes longer,
sometimes shorter, and now and then deviating two or three inches
from the line.

I thought immediately that we had been discovered by another roving
party of the brig