ht the 'prentice's life the merriest life in
the world. I had cared for nobody, and it had troubled me little if
nobody cared for me. Strange that now I felt like a greyhound in the
leash, longing to be anywhere but where I was.

Besides, I had more solid grounds for wakefulness. However well to-day
I had given my pursuers the slip, I guessed I had not heard the last of
Captain Merriman and his merry men. They would find me out; and I might
yet become, as Peter had said, a lodger in Newgate, and, worse than
that, a cause of trouble and distress to good Master Walgrave and his
lady.

For, however poorly I esteemed my master, I could ill afford to bring
harm on his family. For my mistress was ever my champion and my friend,
and her children I was wont to love as my own brothers and sisters.

So I spent half the night kicking in my bed--of which kicks Master Peter
received his full share--and rose very early, resolved to try what hard
work could do to cure my unrest.

No one was stirring that I could hear, and I went down the stairs
silently and took up my labour at the case. My stick lay on the floor,
where I had dropped it the morning before, and, alack! the squabbled
type lay there too, a sight to make a man sad. Slowly and painfully I
saved what I could, and was setting myself to make good the rest, when
my ears caught a strange sound below my feet. It was a beating sound,
followed by the dull fall of something, and, on listening, it came and
went every two or three minutes.

I had guessed more than once before now that under the house was a
cellar, although I had never been there, nor, indeed, knew how to
approach it. For there was no opening, front or back, to the outer
world that I knew of, and, if there at all, it must be pitch-dark and
hard to breathe in. And yet the noise I now heard, if it came from
anywhere, came from below. I looked about carefully, hoping for a crack
in the floor through which to solve the mystery. But crack there was
none. Only as I looked further I saw that the reams of paper, which lay
usually near the press, were moved somewhat to one side. Now, as my
master was always particular that the paper should lie always in the
same place, it seemed strange to me they should be so disturbed. But on
going nearer I perceived the reason. For there, usually hidden to view,
was now exposed a cunning trap-door, opened by a hinge and sunken ring
in the boards.

Now, having found so