Chapter 5: An Escape.
"Well, here we are, Terence," Ryan said cheerfully, as the door oftheir cell closed behind them; "and now, what next?"
"The next thing is to look round, Dick. Other matters can wait. Onecannot form the remotest idea as to the possibilities of an escape,until one has found out everything about the place. I should saythat it will be quite soon enough to discuss it, in another coupleof months.
"Now, as to the room; there is nothing to grumble at here. Twotruckle beds, not altogether luxurious in appearance but, at anyrate, a good deal softer than the ground on which we have beensleeping, for months past. A couple of chairs, designed for userather than comfort; but which will do to sit on, while we take ourmeals, and at other times we can use the beds as sofas. Agood-sized piece of carpet, a table, and what looks like a puddingdish to wash in.
"Things might have been better, and they might have been a greatdeal worse. As to our food, we must reserve comment until theybring us some.
"Now, as to funds, I had only twenty-five crowns on me when I wascaptured. You were rather better off, as you had ten pounds in goldand eight crowns in silver. You see, had we given our parole likethe others, and gone in for luxurious feeding outside, our stockwould soon have given out; and money is an essential for carryingout an escape, when that escape involves perhaps weeks oftravelling, and certainly disguises of different kinds. We have nota penny too much for that, and must resolve to eschew all luxuriesexcept tobacco, and perhaps a bottle of wine on Sundays."
"Our windows, as you observe, are very strongly barred. They lookwestward, but that range of buildings opposite prevents our gettinga view of the sea. One thing is evident, at once: that it is nomanner of use for us to think of cutting through those bars, ordislodging them; for we should only, on lowering ourselves, be inthe courtyard, and no nearer escape than we were before we beganthe job. It is a good thing to get at least one point off our mind.
"Now, Dick, before we go further, let us make an agreement that wewill always talk in French. I know enough of it to be able toassist you, and it will be an amusement, as well as a help, toaccustom ourselves to talk in it."
"All right," Ryan said, resignedly; "but I bargain that, for anhour a day, we drop it altogether. It will be an awful nuisance;and one must give one's tongue a rest, occasionally, by letting itstraighten itself out a bit."
The door now opened, and one of the warders entered with two largebowls of broth, a fair-sized piece of the meat from which it wasmade, a dish of vegetables, a large piece of bread, and a bottle ofwine.
"This is your supper, messieurs. In the morning you have coffee anda piece of bread; at twelve o'clock a meal like this, with a bottleof wine between you."
"Thank you," Terence said cheerfully, "that will do extremely well.Are there any other British officers here?"
"None, except your comrades. There were some naval officers herelast week, but they have been sent into the interior. We do nothave many prisoners here. Those captured at sea, by warships orprivateers, are generally taken to Brest and, so far, we have nothad many of your nation sent from Spain. There are Spaniards,sometimes, but they do not count. Those that are taken aregenerally drafted into the Spanish corps of our army."
"Can we buy tobacco?" Terence asked.
"Certainly, monsieur. There is a canteen in the courtyard. It isopen from eight till nine o'clock in the morning, and from five tosix in the evening. But you are not allowed to get things in fromthe town; but nevertheless--" and he smiled, "--as your comradesare on parole, doubtless, should you need anything beyond what issold in the canteen, it may chance that they may bring you just thethings you want."
"Thank you. You had better get something from the canteen foryourself," Terence said, handing him a crown.
"Thank you, monsieur. I have heard, from the soldiers who came inwith you, that you fought bravely with them against the Spanishbrigands; and they think that it is very hard that you and yourcompanion should be shut up here, after having proved such goodcomrades. I have a cousin among them. He, like myself, is a nativeof Bayonne and, should it be in his power, I am sure that he andhis comrades would do anything they could for Monsieur--as far, ofcourse, as their duty as French soldiers will allow them."
"Thanks. By the way, what is your name?"
"Jean Monier, monsieur."
"Well, Jean, will you please tell your cousin that I am obliged tohim for his goodwill? It was a pleasure to fight side by side withsuch brave soldiers and, should an occasion offer, I will gladlyavail myself of his services. The detachment is not going farther,is it?"
"No, monsieur. They will remain here for perhaps two or threemonths, till the good French air has invigorated them; then theywill join some column marching south again. There is nothing morethat you will want tonight, monsieur?"
"No, thank you, Jean. Good evening!"
"Good evening, good sleep!" and the warder retired.
"What is all that jabber about, Terence?"
"Very satisfactory jabber, and jabber that is likely to lead to avery good result. A cousin of his is one of the guard that camedown with us. He has told this warder about our fight, and askedhim to say that he and his comrades were very angry at our beingshut up here; and as much as said that they would aid us to escape,if it was in their power, so we may consider that our firstdifficulty is as good as arranged. No doubt in a short time theywill be put on regular garrison duty, and will take their turn infurnishing prison guards. This warder is evidently ready to doanything he can, so that we may look upon our escape from prison asa matter of certainty. I don't suppose that, in any case, the guardis a very vigilant one; for they would not expect that prisoners ofwar here would try to escape. At Verdun, and other prisons within afew days' journey of the frontier, it would be different."
"Well, that is good news, Terence, though I see myself that ourdifficulties will really begin only when we get out. There is nodoubt that the fight with the guerillas was a lucky thing for us. Iwould not have missed it for anything, for I must say there wasmuch more excitement in it than in a battle, at least as far as myexperience of a battle goes. At Talavera we had nothing to do butstick up on the top of a hill, watch the French columns climbingup, and then give them a volley or two and roll them down the hillagain; and between times stand to be shelled by Victor's batterieson the opposite hill. I cannot see that there is any fun aboutthat. This fight, too, has turned out a very good thing for us. Iexpect we should not have been so well treated if it had not beenfor it, and the fact that some of these French soldiers are readyto give us a helping hand is first rate.
"You see, it is all your luck, Terence. There never was such afellow for luck as you are."
"There is no doubt about that," Terence agreed. "Now, Dick, youmust really break into French."
"Tomorrow morning will be time enough for that," Ryan said, in atone of determination. "I want to talk now, really talk; and Ican't do that in French, especially after what you have just toldme. By the way, I don't see, myself, why we should make thisjourney through France. Why not try to get a boat, and landsomewhere on the coast of Spain?"
"I have been thinking of that, Dick; but it seemed to me, before,altogether too difficult. Still, if we can get help from outside, Idon't know why we should not be able to manage it. We should haveto go some distance along the Spanish coast, for there are sure tobe French garrisons at Bilbao and Santander; but beyond that Ishould think we might land at any little village. Galicia mustcertainly have been evacuated by the French, for we know that Ney'scorps were down in the Tagus valley; and I should think that theycannot have any great force in the Asturias. The worst of it is, wehave not got enough money to buy a boat; and if we had, thesoldiers could hardly bargain with a fisherman for one. Of course,if we were free we might arrange with a man to go with us in hisboat, and pay him so much for its hire, for three or four days."
"We might make our way down the river, and steal one, Terence."
"Yes, we might do that, but
it would be a heavy loss to some poorfellow. Well, I shall look forward to the morning, when we can goout and see all about the prison arrangements."
"Then you have given up the idea of waiting for two months beforeyou do anything, Terence?" Ryan remarked.
"Certainly. You see, these French convalescents may be marched backagain, in another month's time and, at present, our plans must beformed upon the supposition that they are ready to help us. Itwould never do to throw away such an opportunity as that. It wouldbe little short of madness to try and get out, unless we haddisguises of some sort. My staff officer's uniform, or yourscarlet, would lead to our arrest at the first village we came to.
"Besides, before this news one was willing to wait contentedly, fora time, till some good opportunity presented itself. Now that wehave such an unexpected offer of assistance, the sooner we get outof the place the better."
The next morning they went out into the courtyard of the prison.The soldiers who had been captured with them were walking about ingroups; but the sentry who accompanied the two British officers ledthem through these, and took them up to the top of the wallsurrounding the prison.
"Messieurs," he said, "when the others are shut up you can go whereyou please, but my orders are that you are not to communicate withyour soldiers."
He then fell back some distance, and left them free to wander abouton the wall.
From this point they had a view over the city. Bayonne was astrongly fortified place, standing on the junction of the Nive andAdour, and on the south side of the latter river, two miles fromits mouth. The Nive ran through the town, and its waters suppliedthe ditches of the encircling wall and bastions. The prison wassituated on the Nive, at some three or four hundred yards from thespot where it entered the Adour.
"I should say this quite decides it," Terence said, when they hadmade the circuit of the walls, upon which sentries were placed atshort intervals. "Once out of the town the river would be open tous, but it would be next to impossible to pass those semicircles offortifications on both sides of the town. You can see the masts ofthe craft lying at the quays and, though I should not like to rob afisherman of his boat; I should not feel the smallest scruple intaking a ship's boat, which would be, comparatively, a small lossto the owner. The worst of it would be that, directly we were foundto be missing, and the owner of the boat reported its loss, theymight send out some of their gunboats in search of us, and weshould very soon be overtaken."
Discipline was not very strict in the French army, except when inan enemy's country; and the sentries, knowing well that there wasreally no occasion for watchfulness, answered willingly thequestions that Terence asked them as to the names of places withinsight.
"It must be rather tedious work for you, on the wall here," Terencesaid to one whose post was shielded by a building close by, fromobservation from below.
"Very dull," the soldier said, "and we shall be glad enough when weare relieved and marched into Spain. Here we are doing no good.There is no chance whatever of the prisoners attempting an escape,for if they did get out of here they could get no further; but theysay that we shall not stop here long, and we shall be heartily gladwhen the order comes. They say the convalescents who came inyesterday will take over the prison duties next week."
Terence's motive for speaking to the men was to discover whetherthey were forbidden to talk, and it was satisfactory to find that,if there was such a rule, it was by no means strictly observed.Leaning on the parapet, he and Ryan stood for some time looking atthe sea. There were many fishing boats dotting its surface, and thetapering masts of two schooners could be seen near the mouth of theriver.
"I have no doubt that they are privateers," Terence said. "Theyhave just the appearance of that fellow we captured on the way out.One would not have much chance of getting far in a boat, with thosefellows after us.
"It seems to me that, if it could possibly be managed, our safestplan would be to lie quiet in the town for a week or so, after wegot out; then it would be comparatively safe to get hold of a boatand make off in it."
"Yes, if that could be managed, it certainly would be the safestplan. If we changed our minds about making off by sea, we mightthen be able to pass out through the fortifications, withoutquestion. Of course, they would be vigilant for a short time afterwe were missing; but I suppose that, at ordinary times, the countrypeople would go in and out unquestioned, just as in any other townfor, with no enemy nearer than Portugal, there could be no occasionwhatever for watchfulness."
Terence and his companion had seen nothing of their friends onparole, as these, they found, although lodged in prison for theirown convenience, were not permitted to have any communication withthe other prisoners. Ten days after they arrived at Bayonne, thewarder, who had, since he first spoke to them, said nothing beyondthe usual salutations, remarked carelessly:
"The soldiers who came down with you took up the prison duties lastnight. My cousin told me to say that you will know him, and four orfive of his comrades of the 72nd of the line, all of whom arethoroughly in agreement with him, by their saying as you pass them:
"'The morning is fair, Colonel.'
"To any of them you can speak, when you find an opportunity ofdoing so, unobserved."
"Thank you; but will it not be safer for them were you to carry mymessages?"
"No; I cannot do that," the warder said. "I think that it is quiteright that my cousin, and his comrades, should do anything in theirpower to aid those who stood by them when attacked; but I wish toknow nothing about it. It must be between you and them, for I mustbe able to swear that I had no hand in the matter, and that Ilocked you up safely, at night."
"You are quite right, Jean. It is much the best plan that it shouldbe so. I certainly should not, myself, like to know that in makingmy escape I might endanger the life of one who had acted simplyfrom kindness of heart; and trust that no suspicion, whatever, willfall upon you. I thank you most heartily for having brought me themessage from your cousin, and for the goodwill that you have shownus."
When Terence and Ryan went out as usual, after breakfast, all thesentries they passed saluted, as if to one of their own officers.They of course returned the salute, and made a cheery remark toeach, such as "Rather a change, this, from our work up in thehills, lad," to which each gave some short and respectful answer,three of them prefacing it with the words: "The morning is fair,mon Colonel ".
Two of these had the number of their regiment on their shako. Theother, who had a deep and scarcely-healed scar over the ear, onlywore a forage cap, having evidently lost his shako when wounded.
"What do you mean by saluting a prisoner," a French staff officer,when he was passing, angrily asked an old soldier. "You have beenlong enough in the service, surely, to know that prisoners are notsaluted."
The soldier stood at attention.
"Monsieur le Capitaine," he said, "I am not saluting a prisoner. Iam saluting a brave officer, whose orders I have obeyed in a hardfight, and to whom I and my comrades probably owed our lives. Amark of respect is due to a brave man, whether a prisoner of war ornot."
The officer passed on without answering and, arriving atheadquarters, reported the circumstances to the general.
"I am not surprised, Captain Espel," the latter replied, with aslight smile. "A French soldier knows how to respect bravery, andin this case there is little doubt that, but for the assistance oftheir prisoners, it would have gone very hard with that detachment.That young officer who, strangely enough, is a colonel, was aprisoner when he fought side by side with these men; and it is butnatural that they scarcely regard him as one, now. He has refusedto give his parole, and I am afraid he means to try to make hisescape. I am sorry for, should he do so, he is sure to be capturedagain."
The third one of the 72nd men, the one with a forage cap, chancedto be posted at the point of the wall that was not overlooked and,after he had repeated the formula agreed upon, Terence said to him:
"You are one of those lads who sent me a message th
at you wouldassist me, if you could."
"That is so, mon Colonel. You assisted us when we were somewhathotly pressed, and tis but good comradeship to repay such aservice, if one can. We have been thinking it over and, although itwould not be difficult for you to escape from here, we do not seehow you are to be got out of the town."
"That is the difficulty I see myself," Terence replied. "We couldnot hope to pass through the circle of fortifications and, were weto take a boat and make off, we should be pursued and recaptured,to a certainty; for of course, as soon as our escape was known,there would be a hot search made for us.
"There are two things needed. The first is disguises. The second isa shelter, until the search for us slackens, after which it wouldbe comparatively easy for us to make off."
"What sort of disguises would you want, monsieur?"
"If we go by land, peasant dresses; if by water, those offishermen. We have money, which I can give you to purchase these."
"That we could do for you, monsieur, but the hiding place is moredifficult. However, that we will see about. I am a native here, andhave of course many friends and acquaintances in the town. When wehave made our plans I will let you know. I will manage that, whenit is my turn for duty, I will always be posted here; and then Ican tell you what is arranged, and give you whatever is necessaryto aid you to make your escape. My cousin, Jean Monier, will shuthis eyes; but he will not do anything himself, and I think that heis right, for of course he will be the first to be suspected.
"As for us, it will be no matter. Everyone knows how you stood byus, and they will guess that some of us have had a hand in it; butthey will never find out which of us was chiefly concerned. Iexpect that soon we shall all be taken off this prison duty, forwhich we shall not be sorry, and sent back to Spain with the firstdetachment that comes along; but after all, one is not so badly offin Spain, and certainly Madrid is a good deal more lively thanBayonne."
"I suppose," Terence said, nodding towards their guard, who wasstanding a few paces away gazing over the country, "he knowsnothing about this."
"No, monsieur, we have kept it to just the men of our own regiment;but all feel the same about your being kept a prisoner, and thereis no fear of his telling anyone that you spoke to one man morethan another, when it is found out that you have escaped. Still, itmight be as well that you should not speak to me again, until Itell you that it is a fine morning; for although all our own mencan be trusted, if any of the regular prison warders was to noticeanything he would not be slow in mentioning it, in hope of gettingpromotion."
Accordingly Terence made a point of only passing along that part ofthe wall once a day, and merely saying a word to the soldier, as hedid to others, on the occasions when he was on duty.
Ten days later the man replied to his salutation by remarking thatit was a "fair day." It happened that the man told off to guardthem on this occasion was another of the 72nd; there was thereforenothing to be feared from him.
"I have arranged the matter, monsieur," the soldier said. "Mysister's husband, Jules Varlin, will shelter you. He is afisherman, and you can be safely hidden in the loft where he keepshis nets and gear. He is an honest fellow, and my sister has talkedhim over into lending his aid so far and, although he has notpromised it yet, I think we shall get him to go down the river withyou, so as to reply if you are challenged. You can put him ashore amile or two along the coast.
"Now as to the escape, monsieur. Here is a sharp saw. With it youcan cut round the lock of your door. There are two outside bolts,whose position I dare say you have noticed; by cutting a hole closeto each of them, you can get your hand through and draw them. Hereis a short-handled augur, to make a hole for the saw to go through.
"There are four sentries at night, in the courtyard. We shallmanage to get all our men on duty, tomorrow evening. Our sergeantis a good fellow and, if he guesses anything, will hold his tongue;for I have heard him say, more than once, that it is monstrous thatyou should be kept a prisoner.
"Therefore you need not be afraid of them. They will take care tokeep their eyes shut. I shall be on sentry duty here, and will getthe disguises up, and a rope. When you have got down I shall letthe rope drop, and you will carry it off and take it away with you;thus there will be no evidence where you descended.
"Here are two sharp files, with which you can cut through the barsof your window, and remove some of them; then it will not be knownwhether you escaped that way, or down the stairs; and the men onsentry in the courtyard at the bottom cannot be blamed because, foraught the governor will know, you may have gone out through thiswindow into the other courtyard, and got over the wall on thatside; so they would have no proof as to which set of men werenegligent.
"No doubt we shall all be talked to, and perhaps kept in theguardroom a few days, but that won't hurt us; and soldiers arescarce enough, so they will hardly keep ten or twelve men long fromduty. There are not enough in the town, now, to furnish all theguards properly; so you need not worry about us.
"I will give you instructions how to find my sister's house,tomorrow night. You must not escape until you hear the bell strikemidnight. Our party will relieve guard at that hour. You see, wehave four hours on duty and, as you may have gone either on thefirst watch, the second, or the third, they will not be able topitch on us more than on the others; so that, in fact, the blamewill be divided between forty of us. You will, of course, put onyour disguises over your uniforms, and destroy your clothes, whenyou get to Jules' house."
"I thank you very warmly, my good fellow, for running all this riskfor me. Here are two hundred francs to pay for the disguises."
"That will be more than enough," the soldier said. "Jules put itdown at a hundred and fifty."
"Things may cost more than he expects. At any rate, please handthese to him. I can arrange matters with him when I see him.
"Then at about a quarter past twelve we will sally out. We willwalk on now, lest any of the warders should happen to notice thatwe have been a long time on this part of the wall."
Ryan had understood but little of what was happening and, whenTerence told him what had been arranged, he exclaimed:
"Well, after this, Terence, I will never say a word against aFrenchman. Here are these soldiers going to run a lot of risk, anda certainty of getting into a row for us, merely because we did thebest we could against those wretched Spaniards; and without gettingany reward whatever, for they must know that prisoners are notlikely to have any money to spare about them."
"Quite so, Ryan; and what is more, if I had a hundred pounds in mypocket, I would not offer them a penny; for certainly they wouldtake it as an insult if I did so. They would feel that it would bea sort of bribe and, though they are ready to help us as comrades,I am sure they would not do it for money. I sincerely hope theywon't get into any serious row. As he said, authorities won't beable to tell which party was on guard at the time we went, and theycould hardly put the whole of them under arrest--at least, not keepthem under arrest. No doubt there will be a close search in thetown for us, but there is little fear of our being discovered.
"Our dangers won't begin until we are fairly afloat. I know nothingabout sailing. I have rowed a boat many a time, at Athlone; but asfor sailing, I have never once tried it."
"Nor have I," Ryan said. "But I suppose there is no difficultyabout it. You put up the sail, and you take hold of the rope at thecorner, and off you go."
"It sounds all right, Dicky, and I dare say we shall manage to getalong, somehow; but these things are not half as easy as they look.Now we had better have four or five hours' sleep this afternoon,for I expect it will take us the best part of the night to filethrough the bars. You must not cut quite through them, but justleave them so that we can finish them off in a short time, tomorrownight."
"But the warder might notice them?"
"He is not likely to look very sharply, Dicky; but at the sametime, it is just as well not to put too great a strain on hisloyalty. We will keep a piece of bread over from our s
upper, workit up into a sort of paste, fill up any cuts we make, and rub itover with dirt till it well matches the bars. Certainly they haveplanned the affair capitally, so as to throw doubt as to which waywe descended, and so divide the blame between as many of thesentries as possible."
It took four hours' work, that night, to get through the bars. Theywere most careful not to let any of the filings fall outside for,had any of them dropped into the courtyard below, they might wellcatch the eye of a warder; and in that case an examination of allthe windows of the rooms above would certainly be made, at once.Before the warder's visit the next morning, the holes had beenfilled up with bread worked into a putty and smeared over withdust; which so nearly matched the bars that it could not beobserved, except by a careful examination.
The next day they abstained from saying more than a passing word toany of the French soldiers. They waited, after being locked up forthe night, for two or three hours; and then began their work at thedoor. The saw was a very narrow one and, when they had made a holewith the augur, they found no difficulty in cutting the wood;therefore they thought it was well to leave that for the lastthing, and so betook themselves to their files, and soon removedenough of the bars to enable a man to crawl through. Then theyreturned to the door, and had cut round the lock, and made holesthrough which they could pass their hands to draw back the bolts, ashort time before the clock struck twelve.
Then they went to the window, and listened. They heard the bellsstrike midnight, and then a stir below, as the sentries wererelieved. Waiting for a few minutes, until all had become quietagain, they drew back the bolts, took off their shoes, and wentnoiselessly down the stairs.
The night was very dark and, although they could hear the tread ofthe sentries in the courtyard, they could not make out theirfigures. They crossed the yard, keeping as far as possible from thesentries. They had no doubt that all would happen as arranged; butthere was, of course, the possibility that at the last moment somechange might have been made; and it was, in any case, as well thatthe men there should be able to declare, honestly, that they hadseen no one.
Stooping so that their figures should not showagainst the sky.]
They were glad when they reached the archway leading to the stairsthat led to the top of the wall. Mounting, they kept along by theparapet, stooping so that their figures should not show against thesky for, dark as it was below, they might have been noticed hadthey not done so. Presently they saw the sentry.
"Diable, messieurs!" he said in a low tone, as they came up to him,"you gave me a start. I was expecting you, but I did not hear yourfootsteps nor see you and, had you been enemies, you might verywell have seized and disarmed me before I could give the alarm.
"Well, here are your clothes."
They soon pulled the blue canvas leggings over their breeches, andover these the high boots, in which their feet felt lost. A roughblouse and a fisherman's oilskin cap completed the disguise. Theyput their boots into the capacious pockets in the blouses, and werethen ready to descend. They had left their shakos in their cellwhen they started.
While they had been putting on their clothes, the sentry hadfastened the rope and lowered it down.
"We are ready now, Jacques," Terence said. "Goodbye, my goodfriend. We shall never forget the kindness that you have shown us,and shall remember with gratitude, all our lives, how a party ofFrench soldiers were ready to show themselves good comrades to menwho had fought by their sides, even though the two nations were atwar with each other. We shall always feel a kindness towards theFrench uniform, in future; and if you or any of your comrades ofthe 72nd should chance to fall into British hands, and you can sendword to me or to Mr. Ryan, I can promise you that we will do all wecan to have you released at once and sent back, or to aid you inany other way."
"We have done but our duty to brave comrades," the soldier said.
"Now, as to where to find my cousin. You will go down that streetbelow, and take the third turning on the right. That will lead youdown to the wharves. Keep along by the houses facing them until youcome to the fourth turning. It is a narrow lane, and there is acabaret at each corner of it. My cousin's house is the twelfth onthe left-hand side. He will be standing at the door. You will sayto him as you pass, 'It is a dark night,' and he will then let youin.
"Don't walk as if you were in a hurry: fishermen never do that. Itis not likely that you will meet anyone, but if you do, and he seestwo fishermen hurrying, it will strike him as singular; and whenthere came news of two prisoners having escaped, he might mentionthe matter, which might lead to a search in the right quarter."
"Will you go first, Ryan, or shall I?" Terence said.
"Just as you like."
"Well, then, you may as well go, as then I can talk with this goodfellow till it is my turn."
Ryan shook the soldier's hand heartily, took hold of the rope,slung himself over the parapet, and began the descent. Terence andthe soldier leaned over, and watched him until they could no longermake out the figure with certainty. As soon as the tension on therope slackened, Terence grasped Jacques' hand, said a few morewords of thanks, and then followed his companion. As soon as hereached the ground he shook the rope and, a minute later, it fellon the ground beside him.
He coiled it up, and then they started down the street. Followingthe instructions that they had received, in ten minutes theyreached the end of the lane.
"We were to throw away the rope, were we not?" Ryan said.
"Yes, but now we are here, there can be no use in our doing so. Ifa length of rope were found lying in the road, people would wonderwho had thrown it away; besides, it is a good stout piece of newrope, and may be of use to the fisherman."
Counting the doors carefully as they went along, they came to thetwelfth where, before they reached it, the red glow from a pipeshowed that a man was standing outside.
"It is a dark night, mate," Terence said in a low tone, as he cameup to him.
"That is right," the man replied; "come in."
He stood aside as they entered, closed the door behind them, andthen lifted a piece of old canvas thrown over a lighted lantern.