n
proceeded to peel off my jacket and waistcoat, unwinding some twenty
feet of thick cord, which I had procured from my sailor friends in the
harbour and had been carrying about me all day, rolled round my body
over my shirt, so as not to lacerate my skin--fearing all the while that
the podgy appearance which its bulk gave to me would be noticed,
although fortunately it had escaped comment.

"We'll get down from the balcony outside the window by the aid of this,"
I explained, as soon as I had got rid of the rope from about my person,
coiling it up handily, first knotting it at intervals, so that we could
descend gradually, without hurting our hands, already sore from
"pandies."

"And, once outside the house, why, we'll make off for the harbour, where
I've no doubt my friends on board the coal brig, which was lying
alongside the quay last Wednesday, when I was down there, will take us
in, and make us comfortable."

"My!" exclaimed Tom, "why, you're a regular brick, Martin. One would
think you had planned it out all beforehand!"

"Just precisely what I did," I replied, chuckling at having kept my
secret. "I have determined ever since last summer to run away to sea at
the first opportunity I got; and when you suggested our blowing up Dr
Hellyer, and making a regular Guy Fawkes of him, I, thought it would be
too warm for us here afterwards, and that then would be the time to
bolt. There is no use in our remaining now, to be starved first and
expelled afterwards--with probably any number of `pandies' given us to-
morrow in addition."

"No," said Tom, agreeing with this pretty correct estimate of our
present position and future prospects. "Dr Hellyer will whack that
ruler of his into us in the morning, without fail--I could see it in his
eye as he went out of the room, as well as from that grin he put on when
he spoke. I dare say, besides, we won't be allowed a morsel to eat all
day; we shall be kept here to watch the other fellows feeding--it's a
brutal way of paying a chap out, isn't it?"

"Well, I'm not going to put up with it, for one," said I, decisively.
"You know, Tom, as soon as my uncle hears of my being expelled, prompted
by Aunt Matilda, he will seize the chance of doing what he has long
threatened, and `wash his hands of me,' and then, why I will be in only
just the same plight as if I take French leave of Dr Hellyer now!"

"My mother, though, will be grieved when she hears of this," put in Tom,
as i