ld necessarily avoid implication in the crime with
them. The boat had been provisioned with a view to their escape by water
when the ambush of the revenue officer had been planned, and they were
now congratulating themselves on their foresight as they prepared to
embark. Clenk had an ill-savored story to tell of the apprehension of a
malefactor through the coercion of hunger, constrained to stop and beg a
meal as he fled from justice, and Drann had known a man whose neck was
forfeited by the necessity of robbing a hen-roost, the cackling poultry
in this instance as efficient in the cause of law and order as the geese
that saved Rome. Copenny, listening sardonically, could not be thankful
for such small favors. His venture as a moonshiner at all events was, so
to speak, a side line of employ. He was trained a blacksmith, and had a
pretty fair stake in the world, according to the rating of a working-man
of this region, now in jeopardy of total loss. The rest had nothing to
lose, and as ever and anon they fell to canvassing the opportunities of
beginning anew in a fresh place the dubious struggle for bare
subsistence, his determination to slip free of them was confirmed. The
morrow would see him in his appointed place--nay, he perceived a sure
means of hoodwinking any possible suspicion of the authorities by finding
a conspicuous position in the searching parties who would go out, he
knew, as the night wore on and the alarm was given that the owner of the
bungalow had not returned.

The boat with the others embarked was far up the river before the child
had ceased to sob and plain for his precious gear. He began to listen
curiously to the splash of the oars as they marked time and the boat rode
the waves elastically. There was no other sound in all the night-bound
world, save once the crisp, sharp bark of a fox came across the water
from the dense, dark riparian forests. The mists possessed all the upper
atmosphere, but following the boat were white undiscriminated
presentments on the sombre surface of the river, elusive in the vapor and
suggestive of something swimming in pursuit. Once Archie pointed his
mittened hand at this foaming wake, but the question died on his lips as
the dank autumnal air buffeted his chill cheek. He shivered in his thin
little white linen dress, meant for indoor wear only, with its smart red
leather belt clasped low and loose about it, and the hardship of cold and
hunger tamed him. He was glad to