and I think
you know the rest."

"The room will never be haunted any more," I said, laughing; "George
laid the ghost with his pistol. But tell me, when did you first know
that the convicts had escaped?"

"We heard about the coach having been seized the very next morning.
The alarm of their escape was given very much sooner than the men
expected. It so happened that a labourer had come into Rockymouth to
fetch the doctor for his child, who was very ill. Dr. Thomas--who came
to see you yesterday--was out in the country, and the man hurried off
to catch him before he returned home. Going along the road in the
darkness, he heard the trampling of horses' hoofs, and the sound of a
heavy vehicle coming towards him, and so stepped aside into a gateway.
None of your gang saw him; but, as you can imagine, he was mightily
surprised to see a mail-coach and team come jolting and floundering
down that byroad. Fortunately for him he didn't hail it; but he
thought something must be wrong, and he spoke about it when he met the
doctor. As luck would have it, Dr. Thomas, on his return journey, had
to go some distance along the highroad, and there he was accosted by a
man who was out of breath with running. This fellow turned out to be
one of the warders; he had managed to get the gag out of his mouth and
shout for help till some one came and untied his bonds. His story was
soon told, and Dr. Thomas rode as fast as he could back to Rockymouth,
and gave the alarm. George says you heard him coming just before you
got into the boat.

"For a time the whole place was in a state of panic, and every person
who lived in outlying cottages was expecting to be robbed, and perhaps
murdered, by the convicts. A large body of men, armed with all kinds
of weapons, from a gun to a reaping-hook, went out to hunt for them,
but with no result. Then a boat was seen floating bottom upwards some
distance from shore, and the report got about that the gang had
attempted to cross to France, but being landsmen had overturned the
boat, and were all drowned.

"The question which puzzled most people was what had become of the
_True Blue_; and the general opinion was that one or more of the men
had not gone with the others, but had stuck to the coach, and driven it
somewhere right away on to the moors. It was only yesterday that the
horses were found and identified."

"Were all the convicts drowned?" I asked.

"Very little doubt, I fear," was the rep