and Miller and after the rude door had closed
upon them similar remarks were addressed to Steele's jailer and guard,
who in truth, were just as disreputable looking as their prisoners.

Then the crowd returned to their pastimes, leaving their erstwhile
comrades to taste the sweets of prison life.

When I got a chance I asked Steele if he could rely on his hired hands,
and with a twinkle in his eye which surprised me as much as his reply,
he said Miller and Bass would have flown the coop before morning.

He was right. When I reached the lower end of town next morning, the
same old crowd, enlarged by other curious men and youths, had come to
pay their respects to the new institution.

Jailer and guard were on hand, loud in their proclamations and
explanations. Naturally they had fallen asleep, as all other hard
working citizens had, and while they slept the prisoners made a hole
somewhere and escaped.

Steele examined the hole, and then engaged a stripling of a youth to see
if he could crawl through. The youngster essayed the job, stuck in the
middle, and was with difficulty extricated.

Whereupon the crowd evinced its delight.

Steele, without more ado, shoved his jailer and guard inside his jail,
deliberately closed, barred and chained the iron bolted door, and put
the key in his pocket. Then he remained there all day without giving
heed to his prisoners' threats.

Toward evening, having gone without drink infinitely longer than was
customary, they made appeals, to which Steele was deaf.

He left the jail, however, just before dark, and when we met he told me
to be on hand to help him watch that night. We went around the outskirts
of town, carrying two heavy double-barreled shotguns Steele had gotten
somewhere and taking up a position behind bushes in the lot adjoining
the jail; we awaited developments.

Steele was not above paying back these fellows.

All the early part of the evening, gangs of half a dozen men or more
came down the street and had their last treat at the expense of the jail
guard and jailer. These prisoners yelled for drink--not water but drink,
and the more they yelled the more merriment was loosed upon the night
air.

About ten o'clock the last gang left, to the despair of the hungry and
thirsty prisoners.

Steele and I had hugely enjoyed the fun, and thought the best part of
the joke for us was yet to come. The moon had arisen, and though
somewhat hazed by clouds, had lightened the n