up town. There they were, going,
gone, and Harding not yet returned with the means of pursuit! Confusion,
vexation and every cross-grained word in the language! So thought
Leslie, as he dodged out to the Bowery and watched the disappearing
carriage. It had not turned off into any one of the cross-streets, and
seemed making for one or the other of the forks of the avenues at the
Cooper Institute. Half a minute more, however, and it might as well be
the proverbial "needle in the hay-stack" for any chance they would have
of finding it again.

Hark! yes, there came tearing hoofs round into Prince Street from
Crosby, and the lamps of a carriage shivered with the speed at which
they were going. The horses were on the run. It was _their_ carriage
after all, for nobody else could be in such a hurry. Twenty seconds
brought the flying carriage to the corner--a second's pause--a hail from
each of the friends--and Leslie was inside with Harding, and the
carriage was dashing up the Bowery about as fast as two good horses
could run, with Leslie and Harding each peering out of the opened
windows at the side, to see if they could catch any glimpse of a
carriage ahead.

There is no doubt that the horses attached to the hinder carriage,
whatever may have been the opinions of those attached to the one
before,--thought that the rate of speed was a little rapid for a hot
midnight in June; and certainly one or two pedestrians who came near
being run over at the crossings just below the Cooper Institute, had an
impression that some rebel prisoner must be running away from Fort
Lafayette or some government official trying to stop one. As Harding and
Leslie neared that highly respectable but very ugly monument to the
profits of iron and glue and the public pride of Mr. Peter Cooper,--of
course there arose a question, the carriage being out of sight, which of
the two branches it had taken. The Third Avenue being the plainer road,
Leslie decided for the Fourth, and with a shout to the driver just
before they reached Tompkins Market, the horses' heads were turned in
that direction, and away they went up the comparatively quiet avenue.

At the rate they were going they soon overtook a carriage, as they would
have overtaken any thing less rapid than a locomotive or a whirlwind. It
was lucky that Leslie had taken the precaution to note the number on the
hack, as otherwise they would have been at fault after all. As they
dashed by the carriage, wh