crub, and after supper George was permitted to wander about and
stretch his aching limbs. It was rolling country, broken by low rises,
and he could not see more than a mile or two. There was nothing that
served as a, landmark, and as soon as he began to stroll away from the
camp he was sharply recalled. In the end, he sat down to smoke, and
did not move until he was told to get into the wagon, where a blanket
was thrown him. So far, he had been permitted to see only one of his
captors near at hand.

The next morning they set out again. George thought that fresh horses
had been obtained in the night, because they drove at a rapid pace most
of the day; and he was tired and sore with the jolting when they camped
in another bluff at sunset. Two more days were spent in much the same
way; and then late at night they stopped at a little building standing
in the midst of an unbroken plain, and George was released and told to
get out. One of the men lighted a lantern and led him into an empty
stable, built of thick sods. It looked as if it had not been occupied
for a long time, but part of it had been roughly boarded off, as if for
a harness room or store.

"You have got your blanket," said his companion. "Put it down where
you like. There's only one door to this place, and you can't get at it
without passing me. I got a sleep in the wagon and don't want any more
to-night."

George heard the vehicle jolt away, and sat down to smoke while the
beat of hoofs gradually sank into the silence of the plain. Then he
wrapped his blanket about him and went to sleep on the earthen floor.

CHAPTER XXX

THE ESCAPE

George got up the next morning feeling cramped and sore after his
journey, and carefully looked about. The building had solid walls of
sod; such rude stalls as it had been fitted with had been removed,
perhaps for the sake of the lumber. He could not reach the door
without alarming his jailer, who had taken up his quarters behind the
board partition; and there was only one small window, placed high up
and intended mainly for ventilation. The window was very dusty, but it
opened and George could see out by standing up, though the aperture was
not large enough to squeeze through.

Outside stood some timbers which had once formed part of a shack, and a
few strands of fence wire, trailing from tottering posts, ran into the
grass. The place appeared to have been a farm, whose owner had, no
doubt, abandone