TO CORRESPONDENTS.

All communications relating to Literary and Business matters should be addressed to the Editor, Mr. NICHOLAS DICKSON, 19 Waverley Gardens, Crossmyloof, Glasgow.

(Illustrated),

CHAP. V.

UR decision once formed, we were not long in developing the details of a scheme for putting it into execution. My friend Dacres and I were both great readers of books of adventure, and it chanced that a stray volume of the "Memoirs of Casanova," which had fallen into our hands, had filled our heads with visions of midnight escapes. Accordingly we decided that our elopement should take place by night,

and from the casement of our bedroom. Minute in details, in respect to the larger issues of our flight we acted with the characteristic heedlessness of youth, which looks not ere it leaps— regarding our projected escapade, with anticipations which were alternately fearful and delightful, as a schoolboy frolic of unprecedented daring, and as nothing more.

Our preparations were quickly completed, and we decided to delay the execution of our plan no longer. Throughout the appointed day a sense of expectation brooded over the school, and it was with bated breath that we withdrew to our apartments at night. Having partially undressed, we then slipt on nightgowns over the remainder of our clothes, and when the usher arrived upon his rounds he found us all in bed as usual. Soon everything was quiet.

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But the coast was not yet clear, for it happened that Dr. Rutter, who was fond of good living, had had a dinner-party that evening, and on reconnoitring from the window we beheld him in the garden below, pacing up and down in company with two gentlemen, enjoying a cigar. This was vexatious, and I remember that we gathered eagerly, though cautiously, to our coign of vantage to observe them. The sash was raised, for it was the midsummer term, and we could hear them talking. When they were just under us, the Doctor pointed upwards and said hypocritically

"Those are the dormitory windows-the boys have been asleep this hour and more. Ah! if they only knew it, this is the happiest time of their lives."

To us it seemed as though those cigars would never be smoked out. At last, at last, however, the guests said good-night, and we heard the front door closed and bolted. But we had still to be quiet for at least three-quarters of an hour, to allow time for Dr. Rutter and his wife and the servants to fall asleep. Then, at a given signal, we rose and began to move noiselessly about the dormitory, making our preparations. Taking sheets from the beds we tore them into strips, in the fashion approved in the adventure-books, and working silently, by the

light of the moon shining in at the window, we wove the strips into a rope. Whilst thus engaged we were prepared at the slightest hint of danger from our watchman to jump into bed, close our eyes fast, and draw the bed-clothes up to our necks. However no such hint was given.

When the rope was ready we tested it, and then made it fast at one end and dropped the other from the window. Then we prepared to descend. Wriothesley, a plucky small boy of light weight, had volunteered to go first. Now the dormitory window was barred with iron bars, but we were satisfied that these bars would form no impediment to our escape; for we had tried the experiment of passing our heads between them and found that it could be done, and we knew that where the head will pass the body may follow. The small boy got through the bars, descended cautiously, hand under hand, and shouted back in a whisper that all was right. I was to follow. In my eagerness to be off, I was already perched upon the narrow window sill, whence, like a bat clinging to a wall, I had watched Wriothesley's descent. I grasped the rope, and easily slid down. As my feet touched earth and I glanced around me in the garden, an exhilarating sense of freedom thrilled me through. I signed to the others to come along. Dacres followed me, and then one after the other in quick succession the boys came slipping to the ground. Everything seemed to be succeeding in conformity with our most sanguine expectations.

But now an unlooked for hitch occurred. One of the last of the boys left in the bedroom was a youth named Williams, who from his corpulence had acquired the nickname of "Pudding." Pudding's turn to descend arrived, but in endeavouring to squeeze himself between the window-bars he stuck fast. Here was a pretty kettle of fish! He struggled, we encouraged and advised him from below, the boys behind pushed. All was in vain. And to make matters worse, feeling himself exceedingly uncomfortable in his constrained position, he began to grow nervous-he was a soft sort of chap at the best-and spoke louder than was prudent. Hereupon some of us scolded, others laughed, and in short far too much noise was made. At last, with a mignty effort, he wrenched himself free just in time to avert apoplexy, and lumbering down the rope, stood among us. His breeches were torn at the seat, he was very cross, and altogether he was in such a woful plight and presented such a ludicrous figure, that we sought in vain to stifle our mirth. All at once,

however, we were sharply recalled to a sense of our critical position.

In one of the windows of the house a light had made its appearance, and the next moment we heard ourselves challenged by the Doctor's voice. It was too late now to think of turning back, so our sole hope lay in pushing on. So far we had the start; but then as yet we were only in the garden, which a high wall surrounded. Scarcely pausing to hurl defiance in the threatening Doctor's teeth, Dacres and I made off across the enclosure toward a shed where we knew a ladder was kept. This ladder we seized, carried to the wall, and placed in position. We had just done so when the boys who had been last to descend joined us. (We had given them due warning of the surprise, but the plucky fellows declined to desert us). They reported that the house was already astir; but, indeed, we could see for ourse ves that lights were passing to and fro behind the windows, and just then the school bell began to clang. I cried to the others to lose no time, and taking my stand at the foot of the ladder bundled the smaller boys over first. Dacres and I were the last to mount. As we sat astride the wall, the pursuit entered the garden-we could distinguish the Doctor, in undress, an athletic young usher, a visitor, the butler, the gardener, and the gardener's They were close upon us, when we drew the ladder up to the top of the wall, plumped it down upon the other side, and ourselves dropped after it. Then we set off to run as fast as our legs would carry us.

son.

Our trick with the ladder had regained us our lost start, and once more we felt free from anxiety. Speeding on, we soon emerged from a steep lane upon a tract of ground which was broken and unreclaimed. Here we presently rallied to take breath. Our pursuers were nowhere to be seen, and we were standing listening and conferring together when all at once Dacres, who was next to me, quoted the well-known line from the tenth Iliad which the historian Suetonius puts in the mouth of the hunted Nero. The next moment we beheld the usher's head emerge from a gully close at hand. The others were behind him. Superior knowledge of the country had enabled them to make a short cut, and they were in the act of stealing upon us unaware. Now we had agreed to stick together as long as possible, and only to scatter in the last resort; but in the sudden alarm of the moment someone shouted "Separate!" and straightway we all began to run, spreading out like the spokes of a fan, and each taking a direction of his own. Disdaining lesser game, the usher chose me as his quarry. He was a good runner, and for a time he ran me close;

but an unusual sense of lightness possessed me and I sped on, past sleeping cottages, across a furze-grown common, leaping as I went, and delighting in the wildness of the moonlight chase. And long after I had distanced my pursuer I still ran on, like a hare that glories in its speed and runs for the mere enjoyment of running.

At last, when I must have run at least several miles, I slackened speed and looked about me. I was travelling along a white road which traversed a wide heath, and not far away on my left hand a stone cross spread its arms against the sky. The place was utterly unknown to me, and excepting for the road and the cross, entirely without traces of man's handiwork. I began to wonder how my fellow runaways had fared, and feeling that I could now do so with safety, I raised my hand to my mouth and gave utterance to a peculiar prolonged cry which was used by the boys of the school to communicate with one another at a distance. Then I paused to listen. From a dark bourne far ahead, I heard the cry distinctly repeated. This surprised me, for it seemed to indicate that one at least of my schoolfellows must have run much faster, or at least in a much straighter line, than I had done. However I was eager for the solace of company, and without staying to think further I pushed on in the direction whence the sound had come. As I proceeded, I from time to time repeated the cry, which was invariably answered. In this manner I was lured further and further into the depths of the dark moorland. At last, supposing that I must be quite near the spot whence the responsive cry proceeded, I halted, and after drawing a deep breath, sent my voice out searchingly into the night. This time there was no answer. With deepening doubt, I called again, and yet again, but still to no purpose; and then, all at once, the truth flashed upon me--I had been the dupe of an echo! What had so far obscured my judgment as to render this possib'e, I am at a loss to understand; all I know is that never in my life before had I met with the mocking voice so perfectly developed.

A sense of keen disappointment, almost of dismay, came over me as I made this discovery, and I sat down on a stone by the wayside to rest, and to collect my thoughts and look about me. As I had journeyed on, absorbed in my own meditations, the character of the surrounding landscape had changed without my observing it, and the scene on which my eye now fell was in the highest degree impressive-I had almost called it terrifying. I was seated in the depths of a little valley, enclosed by low hills-or by

hills which at least seemed low, though in truth their height was dwarfed and rendered matter of perplexity by the preponderance of the strange and massive structures which surmounted them. For from the summit of every one of them, there rose a pile of what seemed to me Titanic or Cyclopean masonry. Enormous slabs of granite, rudely shapen but with rugged edge, were piled up one upon the other, and stood out in grim and threatening outline against the sky-too artificial seemingly to be the work of nature, too barbarous, too futile, and too vast to have been produced by any but a savage and giant race of men. On these I gazed with bated breath. All around me was lonesome, noiseless, still as death itself, and overhead the moon burned ever with a clear and steady flame.

I was overwrought with the fatigues and emotions of the night; and, as I sate on, my mind sought relief in fanciful conjectures as to the origin and purpose of the gloomy and portentous structures which towered around me. Its operations were purely mechanical and led me towards no conclusion; but somehow the associations evoked were of cruelty and superstition, and records of the midnight darkness of the mind, of priestcraft, and of human sacrifice recurred to my memory.

Then my thoughts reverted to my own affairs, and I seemed to see in my present situation an image of my position in the world. I was utterly alone-alone amid the unknown and the unfriendly. Supposing, as seemed probable, that I had succeeded in baffling my pursuers, there was not a person that I knew of in the world who regarded my existence, or cared for my well-being-not one, if I excepted my mother, and she was lost to me and (for aught I knew to the contrary) might be dead. Traces, indeed, were not wanting of another life which had powerfully influenced mine. But that life was hidden, and its influence (as I told myself) had been for evil, not for good, having operated mainly in keeping me ignorant of what I was most concerned to know, in separating me from all who might have loved me, and in isolating me among my fellows! When first I had thought of my solitary lot in the wide world, the tears had bedewed my eyes; but an element of bitterness and of indignation against the unknown tyrant who had chosen me for the plaything of his caprices now entered into my emotion Whether commendable or not, it served a useful purpose; for by rousing me from the softer mood, it led me to search in my own heart for the support I needed, and for the resolution necessary to conceive and to carry out some definite plan of action. I did not hesitate long.

Actuated partly by resentment, but partly also by a genuine desire of independence, I determined to end that interference which-by whatever motives animated-had, I believed, been baneful in its effect upon my life, and throwing myself upon my own resources, to face the world, as many a lad had done before me, depending solely on myself. And, as I knew that the coast was not far off, whilst the life of a sailor had always had a powerful attraction for me, I resolved to go to sea. Braced by the conflict and inspired by the resulting resolution, I sprang to my feet, and with renewed energy resumed my journey, following blindly whithersoever the road might lead me.

For many more hours, as it seemed, my course still lay across the waste. I passed a tiny village which nestled in a hollow of the moor, beneath the shadow of a mighty church-tower. But the villagers slumbered peacefully, and there was none to enlighten my curiosity as to the seeming incon ruity between the size of the church and that of the congregation. At last the hours of darkness were spent, the wind and stir of dawn passed over the world, and presently, as I surmounted a rising ground, the distant sea opened out before me, blue and sparkling in the sunrise. Then a sudden exhilaration possessed me, and I tossed my cap up in the air, and could have shouted aloud for very gladness of heart, like the Ten Thousand Greeks in a moving passage of Xenophon which I had read at school.

After this the road lay all down hill, and through a smiling country. Orchards stretched on either hand, now filled with apple-blossom, and with sheep browsing upon the grass under the trees. My breakfast consisted of a draught from a milkmaid's pail, and thus refreshed I sped on once more. Signs of habitation now became frequent, and after passing one or two small towns, I at length reached the picturesque and old-fashioned sea-port of Dartmouth.

Now when I made up my mind to go to sea, boyish inexperience had prevented my realizing that there might be many difficulties in the way of my doing so; for I had neither friends to promote my interests, nor qualifications to speak in my favour. However there are occasions in most of our lives when Chance herself seems to combine with us, and when things turn out not so much in accordance with the laws of probability, as with what we ourselves expect. And so it happened with me now. Being very hungry when I reached Dartmouth, the first thing I did as I entered the town was to make my way into a public-house in quest of refreshment. served with bread and cheese, and looking about

I was

me as I ate it, I observed seated in a corner o the room a group of four sea-faring men, engaged in playing a game with cards which I afterwards learnt was called Don Pedro. As was natural under the circumstances, they attracted my attention; and I daresay that as I devoured my food I continually looked towards them, for presently one of them tilted back his chair and, remarking that eating must be dry work, held out his mug towards me. I thanked him and took a draught from it, and in this way an acquaintance was begun which quickly ripened into intimacy. For in my almost famished condition the liquor soon mounted to my head, and my tongue became loosened in consequence. The men rather encouraged my indiscretionfrom time to time inviting me to drink, which I was foolish enough to do; and being delighted with my new acquaintances and bent on interesting them in myself, in a very short time I had taken them freely into my confidence. As I told my story, I observed that they occasionally exchanged significant glances coupled with remarks which were not intended for my ear; and when I had reached the end, one of them smote me on the back with an assumption of bluff cordiality and remarked that, as I wished to go to sea, I had better do so as cabin-boy in their company. What motive induced them to make me this offer, I never learned, but my subsequent knowledge of the men suffices to convince me that mere friendliness played no part in it. Perhaps the rascals fancied that gain might somehow accrue to them from the connexion ; perhaps they merely wished to secure on terms advantageous to themselves the services of a hand who from his inches seemed to promise favourably. But by this time my head was so muddled that I was scarce master of my own actions. Imagining that a stroke of the greatest good luck had befallen me, I jumped at their proposal, without staying to ask questions; and before the day was many hours older I had accompanied them to the quay-side where their vessel lay, and gone aboard. I had hardly done so, when the fatigues of the night before, combining with the effect of the drink I had swallowed, deprived me of consciousness ; and when at last I awoke out of a deep and prolonged slumber, it was to find that the vessel had been got under weigh whilst I slept, and was already standing well out to sea. I hastened on deck, and as I gazed on the receding shore, I felt that pursuit was now nonplussed indeed (for my removal to the vessel had been conducted with proper precaution), and that all connexion between my past and present life was severed once and for ever.