ll my own personal feelings at this stage
of the adventure. I think I had too much confidence in the good will
shown by Lewis and the other men whom we had in a small way befriended
to feel really afraid. I was chiefly curious to know where the
hiding-place existed in which we should be so securely stowed. Perhaps
it was some secret loft or cellar, many of which Miles had declared
existed at Rockymouth. Here we should no doubt lie till the following
evening, when the convicts would continue their escape by land or
water, and George Woodley and I would be set free.

How long we continued jogging onward at a walking pace I cannot say; we
should certainly have been overturned had we attempted to go faster,
and even at that slow rate it seemed to me that we must have gone miles
beyond our destination, and possibly have travelled far along some
byroad running parallel with the coast. Then suddenly the coach
stopped; there was a murmur of conversation, and we heard the men
clambering down from the roof.

A moment later the door was opened, and a voice ordered us to
dismount--a feat which it was not altogether easy for Woodley and me to
accomplish, still fettered as we were, wrist to wrist. The moment I
was outside the vehicle the fresh salt breath of the sea saluted my
cheeks and nostrils. We stood on the high ground above Rockymouth, and
the narrow lane along which we had come now emerged from between high
hedges and cultivated ground, and crossed a stretch of open common or
moorland. A mile distant, and far beneath us, the little haven
snuggled down in the sheltering valley, the only sign of its existence
being one tiny point of light from some cottage window where perhaps
watchers sat beside a sickbed.

The last of the outside passengers was helped down from the roof as
though he had suffered some injury and was partially disabled. I could
not see clearly enough to distinguish what was really the matter with
him, but I noticed that in all his subsequent movements he seemed to be
led or supported by one of his companions.

By mutual consent the men gathered round us in a group, while the tired
horses shook their heads and champed their bits. There we stood, a
strange company, and in the silence, broken only by their heavy
breathing, a feeling of apprehension began to take hold of me, and I
wondered what would happen next.

"What's the time?" demanded Rodwood abruptly. "The guard's got a
watch; just have a l