The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-02-21
TWOSHOES TRIES 1T ON.

by which $1,000. Thomas Twoshoes,
had escaped from the convict prison
at Talkham. 1t was while he was at
work with a gang of four.and-twenty
others wheeling bricks from the kiln
to far-off stack-a long procession.
barrow following barrow, and one end
of the line of men almost beyond the
vision of the warder at the other.
Twoshoes' notion was that he himself
should be built into the stack. Thus
temporarily entombed he might elude
the searches till night came and
brought with it a quiet chance of
stealing away.
Pluck and inventive genius are es-
teemed even by convicts, and his COM
panions readily promised him their
help. Selling favorable opportunity
Twoshoes left his barrow and bestowed
himself full length on top of the stack:
a friend placed two planks over him
to save him from being crushed by the
weight of the bricks which nimble fin
gers quickly built above him. More
and yet more ; the barrows came and
went, and the bricks flowed in a
stream that seemed perennial. Long
before he was missed, TwoshOes was
effectually concealed from sight.
But now Mr.. Tightlock realizes the
terrible truth. He is s'a man short. )"
''Twenty-three, twenty four, twenty
f.
No, not twenty-five, my friend.
Count them as often as you please, you
cannot make the number up. The
twenty.tifth is Thomas Twoshoes, and
he has undoubtedly disappeared.
Then followed shrill whistles of
alarm, shot after shot, the changing of
a distant bell, hurrying footsteps rae.
ing to and fro, anxious voices, as the
pursuers in hot search draw every
covert for the missing man. All about
the brickfeld they range; in among
the brick ''hacks," through the long
rank grass that grows up the clay
heaps; in dry holes and pits knee
deep with stagc ant mud round about
the very brickstack itself wherein
their quarry lay hid. They are like
hounds at fault, these pursuers cast
Jig here and there, hunting high and
low and yet unable to come upon the
scent, although, in truth, it was under
their noses, close at hand.
Meanwhile, Twoshoes, lay close, and
in spite of his constrained position
he might have been big brick him.
self, as still and motionless as his mil.
lions of neighbOrs-chuckled at the
trick he had played his keepers. He
was uncomfortable, of course but he
had only to bide his time. Patiently
he waited through the long hours
waited and listened to the prison-bell
which tolled the passing hours; it
rang out the ''recall from labor" the
time for the evening meal, the time
for taking down the hammOcks and SET
ting the night guard.
This was his time; it had come
with the last bell. Everything was
snug here and quiet for the night.
Now with infinite caution he prepared
to set himself free. No easy task. At
first he could not move, not finger
he had been too securely hidden the
superintendent weight of brick re-
fused to stir. Was he doomed. then,
to suffocation within a living grave
just when escape seemed near at hand?
With one supreme effort he succeeded
in loosening the plank above the
bricks ratified down noisily, and
he was free. Free, but afraid to
emerge as yet. The stack might be
watched; the noise would betray him.
No. The coast was clear, he was stiff
in every limb, torn and bleeding but
he ran swiftly, in spite of fatigue, to
spot where, weeks before, he had
hidden a ragged pair of blanket trous-
ers, made on purpose for such a chance
as this. Then in all haste to the rivers
edge; he swan across; Invested him.
self of his convict clothes, and made
his way fast as his failing strength
would suffer him down to the sea-
coast, whence he embarked and land.
ed at Fort Needham. as Prince Bolti.
koff.
And now he was once more in du-
rance. The chances all against him,
too, his character known as success.
full prison breaker, and he himself
subject to peculiar disabilities as the
penalty of his recent evasion. It was
not only that they shut him up for
days in a semi-dark cell, with bread |
only to eat and water for his drink !; |
but when this was over, and he re.
joined his comrades on the works, !
every one was warned to watch him:
and. to make the process easier. he
was clothed in a bright yellow suit
the peculiar brand of his recent Of
tense; worse still, they loaded him
with chains, handicapping him, so tol