Year: 1873

night they stood in the open space out
side, and beneath the window of the room
in which the prisoner slept. The night
was one OF wind and storm The clouds
scudded across the sky in quick success
sion, and both together contributed the
favorable elements of noise and darkness.
About midnight Smythe was awakened
by the commandant, and informed with a
rueful face that the prisoner, to whom he
had given a double share of vigilance
ever since he had taken command, was
gone!


The orders required the guard corporal
to inspect the prisoners room every two
hours during the night, and in making
one of these untimely visits the object of
so much unapprecated solicitude was
found to have placed himself beyond the
reach OF annoyance.


They visited the room, and there lay
the ponderous ball and chain upon the
floor The pallet was yet warm where
the prisoner had lain His shoes stood
at the foot of the bed; and under the
table lay a leaden rivet which fitted the
hole in the ankle-ring of the discarded
shackles. Under the window plate was
inserted the iron poker from the fire place,
and to this was attached to what is known
IN the quartermaster's department as
check-line. being piece of leather stolen
from some passing team, by which he had
let himself down and escaped among the
huge wagons, and thence to the uninhab
tied wilderness.


Upon the mantle piece lay battered
and heavy carpenters chisel and with
this the prisoner hammered the head of
his shackle-rivet until it had been broken
off and removed. He had then inserted
the one, made from a musket ball, and
wore it in that manner until opportunity
came. He was gore irrevocably. In
these eternal hills, upon such night
| nothing less than the chance which cap
tured him first could take him again, and
before the dawn he would safely have
crossed the Mexican boundary. But
| would he have made the desperate ven
ture on foot, and without guide? And
what of the sentinel who walked back and
forth beneath the window? The night
was entirely dark, and the wall down
| which the prisoner had climbed was white
why had he not seen or heard ? Strange
l7 enough, in cases like this, essential
difficulties IS always overlooked until the





was found fallen in heap beneath the
window, his back against the WALL limp,
silent and still warm, his musket beneath
his hand. Not at once could they discover
the cause of the hurt or how the prisoner
had escaped him. 1t was long before the
cool head, the steady, desperate hand, and
the noiselesss footstep, when in the storm,
and gloom had approached the man who
stood beneath her lovers only hope OF
escape, listening rather than looking and
with his cape about his neck, closely
hugging the wall tor protection against
the wind; and while he for whose sake
her hand was so strong watched her from
THE window, struck that one swift stab in
the back-that silent, certain thrust up
ward beneath the shoulder blade, which,
even now, in Spanish hands has given
rest even to kings. The rejecting Smythe
turned away more than ever regretting
the morning he had uttered his unlucky
wish to the ravens; for, quoth he, there
are no bars which can contine, no circum-
stances which can daunt, the combined
forces of intellect, unscrupulousness and
love