you."

Several times Allen tried to communicate with Eben, and to try to
dissuade him from his hazardous undertaking, but the youth felt
instinctively that he would do so, and remained out of reach of his
beloved colonel's voice.

When night came Eben managed to get to the side of the ship unobserved,
and in a few moments he had dropped noiselessly into the water.

But, as ill luck would have it, he got entangled in some chains as he
struck out from the ship, and the noise attracted the attention of the
guard.

"Man overboard!" he cried.

Allen heard the cry and his heart stood still, for he was sure Eben
would be captured, and then nothing could save his life.

The officer in charge of the prisoners heard the cry also, and at once
ordered every man to answer to his name.

It was the work of but a few minutes, and it was ascertained that Eben
had really escaped.

"Do you see him?" asked the captain.

"Yes."

"Fire on him!"

Several muskets were fired, and had not the Vermonter been an excellent
swimmer he would have been killed. But Eben dived and swam under the
water a great distance, and the bullets were deflected by the water.

A boat was lowered and the stoutest sailors, with four marines, manned
it.

"Ten pounds to the man who kills him," said the captain, "and twenty
for the man who brings him in alive."

There was a stimulus in the offer of reward, although the Englishmen,
every one of them, would have gloried in the chase and in hunting the
boy to his death without even the chance of a reward.

Eben saw the boat coming after him, and he knew that he was in a race
for life.

He was not daunted.

He watched the boat skim through the moonlit water, and he floated for
some little distance to ascertain whether he was seen.

Assured of that, he laughed quietly to himself over the chase he would
give them.

He dashed the water about as though he was about to sink, and instantly
a musket ball struck the water within a few feet of him.

Then he dived and swam in another direction, knowing that the boat
would continue on its straight track.

When he reappeared above the water he saw that he had gained very
materially on his pursuers, and as he did not care what part of the
coast he reached, he again dived and swam farther down the shore.

When he came to the surface and floated, he looked round and saw that
the boat's crew had given him up for lost.

The boat was circling round and round,