n spite of his audacity, he well knew that
it was with him a matter of life and death. It was indeed astonishing,
when putting forth all his vast strength, how fast he sent along his
light skiff; indeed, we gained but slightly on him in our six-oared
galley, and we soon saw that he would reach the shore before we could
overtake him.

"Give way, my lads, give way," shouted our skipper, though the men were
straining every nerve to the utmost. "Give way, and we shall soon be up
with him."

Talk of the excitement of a stag-hunt! it is tame in comparison with the
interest men take in the chase of a fellow-creature. There is something
of the nature of the bloodhound, I suspect, in our composition which
delights in the pursuit of such noble game. A few minutes more decided
the point, a cry of vexation escaping us as his boat touched the shore,
and, coolly drawing her up on the strand, he was seen to make towards
the woods.

"Shall I bring him down, sir?" asked the seaman who sat in the
sternsheets with a musket, marine fashion, between his knees.

"No, no," was the answer. "We must take the fellow alive; he cannot
escape us, if we put our best feet foremost."

Just as our boat's keel grated on the sand, Johnson disappeared among
the rocks and trees, and we could hear a shout of derisive laughter
ringing through the wood.

"After him, my boys, after him," shouted our skipper, as we all leaped
on shore. "A five-pound note to the man who first gets hold of him."

And, except a youth who was left in charge of the boat, away we all
went, helter-skelter, in the direction the outlaw had taken. He made,
it appeared, straight inland, for we could hear his shouts ahead of us
as we rushed on, hallooing to each other from among the trees. Not one
of the party seemed inclined to get before the other--not so much that
one was unwilling to deprive the other of the promised reward, but I
suspect that no one was anxious to encounter Johnson singlehanded, well
armed as of course he was, and desperate as we knew him to be. Our
commander, being a stout man and short-winded, was soon left far behind,
though, as he hurried on, puffing and blowing with the exertion he was
using, his voice, as long as we could hear him, encouraged us in the
pursuit. We had thus made good half a mile or more, when coming
suddenly to the confines of the wood, or copse it might rather be
called, a wide extent of open ground appeared before us, but not