beneath one of the large, shuttered openings in the walls
which were used for the admission of light and air into the shed as
required. The position of the rope naturally led to an examination of
the opening beneath which it lay; and it was then found that the massive
bolts securing the shutter had been drawn, and that therefore there was
nothing to prevent the prisoner from escaping through the opening--
provided that he could free himself from the rope and reach it. But how
he had contrived to accomplish these two things was the mystery: for
Carlos and Jack had both been present during the lashing-up of Alvaros,
and they both felt that they would have been fully prepared to declare
that for the prisoner to release himself would be a simple
impossibility, so securely had he been bound; while the sill of the
opening was quite nine feet from the floor, and for a man to reach it
without the help of a ladder, or some similar aid, seemed equally
impossible,--and there was no such aid in the building. It occurred to
Jack that the prisoner, after freeing himself from his bonds, might have
succeeded in throwing the loop of the rope over one of the shutter
bolts, and so have drawn himself up; but to accomplish such a feat in
absolute darkness again seemed an absolute impossibility. Altogether,
the circumstances seemed to be enveloped in impenetrable mystery; there
was only one indisputable fact, which was that the prisoner was gone.
Then the negro guard was severely questioned, but he seemed quite unable
to throw any light upon the matter; his statement was that he had
exercised the utmost vigilance all through the night, that he had heard
no sound of movement on the part of the prisoner, had noticed nothing to
suggest an attempt at escape, and was utterly confounded when, upon
unlocking the door to take in the prisoner's breakfast, he found that
the bird had flown. This was his story, and no amount of cross-
examination caused him to deviate in the slightest degree from it; for
when a negro lays himself out to deceive, the fact that he is lying
through thick and thin causes him no qualms of conscience.

The investigation thus conclusively pointed to the fact that the
prisoner had somehow contrived to escape; and, that having been
established, the obviously proper thing to do was to endeavour to
recapture him. Horses were therefore ordered to be saddled and taken up
to the house; a Fantee negro, who had been re-named Juan