ing.' It is better that
Walter should go: afterwards I will speak to him." The priest seemed to
hesitate before adding, "He loves the boy. By the way, Walter, you might
tell us exactly how you escaped."

"The greengrocer's wife helped me," said Walter sullenly. "She had taken
a sort of fancy to me, and--she understood the injustice of it better than
Father Halloran seems to. She agreed that there was no wrong in escaping.
She had a friend at Yvignac, and it was agreed that I should walk out
there early one morning and find a change of clothes ready. The master of
the house earned his living by travelling the country with a small waggon
of earthenware, and that night he carried me, hidden in the hay among his
pitchers and flower-pots, as far as Lamballe. I meant to strike the coast
westward, for the road to St. Malo would be searched at once as soon as
the _concierge_ reported me missing. From Lamballe I trudged through
St. Brisac to Guingamp, hiding by day and walking by night, and at
Guingamp called at the house of an onion-merchant, to whom I had been
directed. At this season he works his business by hiring gangs of boys of
all ages from fourteen to twenty, marching them down to Pampol or Morlaix,
and shipping them up the coast to sell his onions along the Seine valley,
or by another route southward from Etaples and Boulogne. I joined a party
of six bound for Morlaix, and tramped all the way in these shoes with a
dozen strings of onions slung on a stick across my shoulders. At Morlaix
I shipped on a small trader, or so the skipper called it: he was bound, in
fact, for Guernsey, and laden down to the bulwarks with kegs of brandy,
and at St. Peter's Port he handed me over to the captain of a Cawsand
boat, with whom he did business. I'm giving you just the outline, you
understand. I have been through some rough adventures in the last two
weeks,"--the lad paused and shivered--"but I don't ask you to think of
that. The Cawsand skipper sunk his cargo last night about a mile outside
the Rame, and just before daybreak set me ashore in Cawsand village.
I have been walking ever since."

Father Halloran stepped to the bell-rope.

"Shall I ring? The boy should drink a glass of wine, I think, and then go
to his father without delay."

III.

"So far as I understand your story, sir, it leaves me with but one course.
You will go at once to your room for the night, where a meal shall be sent
to you. At eight