il, except for the sentry on guard in front of it, but just
as I was leaving the restaurant I saw one of Stuart's police come out
and peer up and down the street and over at the shops. He looked
frightened and anxious, and as I wasn't taking chances on anything, I
stepped back into the restaurant and watched him through the window.
He waited until the sentry had turned his back, and started away from
him on his post, and then I saw him drop his sabre so that it rang on
the sidewalk. He was standing, I noticed then, directly under the
third window from the door of the jail. That was the window of Burke's
cell. When I grasped that fact I got out my gun and walked to the door
of the restaurant. Just as I reached it a piece of paper shot out
through the bars of Burke's cell and fell at the policeman's feet, and
he stamped his boot down on it and looked all around again to see if
any one had noticed him. I thought that was my cue, and I ran across
the street with my gun pointed, and shouted to him to give me the
paper. He jumped about a foot when he first saw me, but he was game,
for he grabbed up the paper and stuck it in his mouth and began to chew
on it. I was right up on him then, and I hit him on the chin with my
left fist and knocked him down against the wall, and dropped on him
with both knees and choked him till I made him spit out the paper--and
two teeth," MacWilliams added, with a conscientious regard for details.
"The sentry turned just then and came at me with his bayonet, but I put
my finger to my lips, and that surprised him, so that he didn't know
just what to do, and hesitated. You see, I didn't want Burke to hear
the row outside, so I grabbed my policeman by the collar and pointed to
the jail-door, and the sentry ran back and brought out Stuart and the
guard. Stuart was pretty mad when he saw his policeman all bloody. He
thought it would prejudice his other men against us, but I explained
out loud that the man had been insolent, and I asked Stuart to take us
both to his private room for a hearing, and, of course, when I told him
what had happened, he wanted to punch the chap, too. We put him
ourselves into a cell where he could not communicate with any one, and
then we read the paper. Stuart has it," said MacWilliams, pushing back
his chair, "and he'll tell you the rest." There was a pause, in which
every one seemed to take time to breathe, and then a chorus of
questions and explanations.

Kin