e them we shall not be able to dive; but must swim across
the moat to the cut, and trust to the darkness for the sentries not
seeing us. Then, once on board a boat, we could take off our wet
things and put the dry ones on."

"But we can hardly wander about the country in shirts and drawers,
Drummond," Stauffen suggested.

"Certainly not. My idea is that, as soon as we are a mile or two
away, we should either board some boat where we see a light, and
overpower the boatmen and take their clothes, if they will not sell
them to us; or else land at some quiet house, and rig ourselves
out. There should be no great difficulty about that. Once rigged
out we must make south, for as soon as our escape is found out the
next morning, cavalry will scour the country in every direction on
this side of the river, and give notice of our escape at every town
and village.

"After lying up quiet for a time, we must journey at least fifty
miles west. We might make for Munich if we like; or strike the Isar
at Landshut, and then work up through Ratisbon, and then through
the Fichtel Mountains to Bayreuth, and so into Saxony; or from
Landshut we can cross the Bohmerwald Mountains into Bohemia; or, if
we like, from Munich we can keep west into Wuertemberg, up through
Hesse-Darmstadt and Cassel into Hanover; or, lastly, we can go on
to Mannheim and down the Rhine, and then come round by sea to
Hamburg."

The others laughed.

"It looks a tremendous business, anyhow, Drummond, and I should
never think of attempting it by myself," Ritzer said; "but if you
assure me that you think it will be possible, I am ready to try
it."

"I think that there is every chance of success, Ritzer. I really do
not see why it should fail. Of course there is risk in it, but once
fairly on the other side of the moat, and on the river bank, it
seems comparatively safe. We can see that there are always a lot of
boats moored in the stream, this side of the bridge; and by taking
a small boat, we might put off to one of them and get our change of
clothes, at once bind and gag the crew--there are not likely to be
above two or three of them--give them a piece of gold to pay for
the clothes, and then row straight up the river and land a mile or
two away. That would make it plain sailing.

"Of course we should push the boat off when we landed, and it would
float down past the town before daylight. The chances are that the
boatmen, finding that they are no losers by the