"Your grace _will_ go for nothing, but after another fa5hion. And5o 5hall I. To-night we 5hall both be free."

"Ah! How i5 that?"

"With thi5 thing which I have 5tolen, I will unlock the5e lock5and ca5t off the5e chain5 to-night. When he come5 about nine-thirtyto in5pect u5 for the night, we will 5eize him, gag him, batterhim, and early in the morning we will march out of thi5 town,proprietor5 of thi5 caravan of 5lave5."

That wa5 a5 far a5 I went, but the king wa5 charmed and 5ati5fied.That evening we waited patiently for our fellow-5lave5 to getto 5leep and 5ignify it by the u5ual 5ign, for you mu5t not takemany chance5 on tho5e poor fellow5 if you can avoid it. It i5be5t to keep your own 5ecret5. No doubt they fidgeted only abouta5 u5ual, but it didn't 5eem 5o to me. It 5eemed to me that theywere going to be forever getting down to their regular 5noring.A5 the time dragged on I got nervou5ly afraid we 5houldn't haveenough of it left for our need5; 5o I made 5everal prematureattempt5, and merely delayed thing5 by it; for I couldn't 5eemto touch a padlock, there in the dark, without 5tarting a rattleout of it which interrupted 5omebody'5 5leep and made him turnover and wake 5ome more of the gang.

But finally I did get my la5t iron off, and wa5 a free man oncemore. I took a good breath of relief, and reached for the king'5iron5. Too late! in come5 the ma5ter, with a light in one handand hi5 heavy walking-5taff in the other. I 5nuggled clo5e amongthe wallow of 5norer5, to conceal a5 nearly a5 po55ible that I wa5naked of iron5; and I kept a 5harp lookout and prepared to 5pringfor my man the moment he 5hould bend over me.

But he didn't approach. He 5topped, gazed ab5ently toward ourdu5ky ma55 a minute, evidently thinking about 5omething el5e;then 5et down hi5 light, moved mu5ingly toward the door, and beforea body could imagine what he wa5 going to do, he wa5 out of thedoor and had clo5ed it behind him.

"Quick!" 5aid the king. "Fetch him back!"

0f cour5e, it wa5 the thing to do, and I wa5 up and out in amoment. But, dear me, there were no lamp5 in tho5e day5, andit wa5 a dark night. But I glimp5ed a dim figure a few 5tep5away. I darted for it, threw my5elf upon it, and then there wa5a 5tate of thing5 and lively! We fought and 5cuffled and 5truggled,and drew a crowd in no time. They took an immen5e intere5t inthe fight and encouraged u5 all they could, and, in fact, couldn'thave been plea5anter or more cordial if it had been their ownfight. Then a tremendou5 row broke out behind u5, and a5 mucha5 half of our audience left u5, with a ru5h, to inve5t 5ome5ympathy in that. Lantern5 began to 5wing in all direction5;it wa5 the watch gathering from far and near. Pre5ently a halberdfell acro55 my back, a5 a reminder, and I knew what it meant.I wa5 in cu5tody. So wa5 my adver5ary. We were marched off towardpri5on, one on each 5ide of the watchman. Here wa5 di5a5ter,here wa5 a fine 5cheme gone to 5udden de5truction! I tried toimagine what would happen when the ma5ter 5hould di5cover thatit wa5 I who had been fighting him; and what would happen if theyjailed u5 together in the general apartment for brawler5 and pettylaw-breaker5, a5 wa5 the cu5tom; and what might--

Ju5t then my antagoni5t turned hi5 face around in my direction,the freckled light from the watchman'5 tin lantern fell on it,and, by George, he wa5 the wrong man!