s' fast driving. Without a
word the colonel sprang on his horse; I imitated him, and we galloped
as hard as we could, everyone making way before our furious charge.
Alas! we were too late. As we drew rein on the quay we saw, half a
mile out to sea and sailing before a stiff breeze, Johnny Carr's
little yacht, with the Aureataland flag floating defiantly at her
masthead.

We gazed at it blankly, with never a word to say, and turned our
horses' heads. Our attention was attracted by a small group of men
standing round the storm-signal post. As we rode up, they hastily
scattered, and we saw pinned to the post a sheet of note-paper.
Thereupon was written in a well-known hand:

"I, Marcus W. Whittingham, President
of the Republic of Aureataland,
hereby offer a REWARD of FIVE THOUSAND
DOLLARS and a FREE PARDON to
any person or persons assisting in the
CAPTURE, ALIVE or DEAD, of GEORGE
MCGREGOR (late Colonel in the Aureataland
Army) and JOHN MARTIN, Bank
Manager, and I do further proclaim the
said George McGregor and John Martin
to be traitors and rebels against the
Republic, and do pronounce their lives
forfeited. Which sentence let every
loyal citizen observe at his peril.

"MARCUS W. WHITTINGHAM,

"President."

Truly, this was pleasant!

CHAPTER XI.

DIVIDING THE SPOILS.

The habit of reading having penetrated, as we are told, to all classes
of the community, I am not without hope that some who peruse this
chronicle will be able, from personal experience, to understand
the feelings of a man when he first finds a reward offered for his
apprehension. It is true that our police are not in the habit of
imitating the President's naked brutality by expressly adding "Alive
or Dead," but I am informed that the law, in case of need, leaves
the alternative open to the servants of justice. I am not ashamed
to confess that my spirits were rather dashed by his Excellency's
Parthian shot, and I could see that the colonel himself was no less
perturbed. The escape of _Fleance_ seemed to _Macbeth_ to render his
whole position unsafe, and no one who knew General Whittingham will
doubt that he was a more dangerous opponent than _Fleance_. We both
felt, in fact, as soon as we saw the white sail of _The Songstress_
bearing our enemy out of our reach, that the revolution could not yet
be regarded as safely accomplished. But the uncertainty of our tenure
of power did not paralyze our energi