do."

The weak moments passed, and just then there was the doctor's cough
heard, and the closing of his door, while directly after came the
chiming of the church clock--a quarter past eleven.

Half an hour to wait and think, and then good-bye to all his troubles,
and the beginning of a new life of freedom!

All the freedom and the future seemed to be behind a black cloud; but in
the fond belief that all would soon grow clear Dexter waited.

Half-past eleven, and he wondered that he did not feel sleepy.

It was time to begin though now, and he took the line and laid it out in
a serpentine fashion upon the carpet, so that there should be no kinks
in the way; and then the next thing was to fasten one end tightly so
that he could safely slide down.

He had well thought out his plans, and, taking one end of the line, he
knotted it securely to the most substantial place he could find in the
room, passing it behind two of the bars of the grate. Then cautiously
opening his window, a little bit at a time, he thrust it higher and
higher, every faint creak sending a chill through him, while, when he
looked out upon the dark starlight night, it seemed as if he would have
to descend into a black gulf, where something blacker was waiting to
seize him.

But he knew that the black things below were only great shrubs, and
lowering the rope softly down he at last had the satisfaction of hearing
it rustle among the leaves.

Then he waited, and after a glance round to see that everything was
straight, and the letter laid ready upon the table, he put out the
candle.

"For the last time!" he said to himself, and a great sigh came unbidden
from his breast.

A quarter to twelve.

Dexter waited till the last stroke on the bell was thrilling in the air
before setting his cap on tightly, and passing one leg over the sill.

He sat astride for a few moments, hesitating for the last time, and then
passed the other leg, and lowered himself down till he hung by his
hands, then twisted his legs about the rope, seized it with first one
hand then the other, and hung by it with his whole weight, in the
precarious position of one trusting to an old doubled clothes-line,
suspended from a second-floor window.

It was hard work that descent, for he could not slide on account of the
knots; and, to make his position more awkward, the rope began to
untwist--one line from the other,--and, in consequence, as the boy
descended slowly, he bore no s