rd.

Before dark, Mr. Blaine received a despatch from the principal,
directing him to take the next train to Malmoe, which is the town in
Sweden opposite Copenhagen. The head steward did not communicate its
contents to his charge that night, but he called all of them at four
o'clock the next morning, and by good management on his part, they
were on the train which left Stockholm at six o'clock. At
Katherineholm, where the party ate an excellent breakfast, Mr. Blaine
unhappily missed three of his company.

CHAPTER XVIII.

UP THE BALTIC.

The excursionists of the squadron slept soundly after their trip to
Elsinore, and Clyde Blacklock, true to the promise he had made to
himself, kept awake to watch his chances to escape. Not a sound was to
be heard in the ship, and the intense silence was even more trying to
the prisoner in the brig than the noise and bustle of the whole crew
when awake. Ryder, the fourth lieutenant, and two seamen had the
anchor watch on deck. Each officer served two hours, and was required
at the stroke of the bell, every half hour, to walk through the
steerage, where no light was permitted after nine o'clock.

Clyde took the saw from its hiding-place under the stairs, and
commenced work on one of the slats. The instrument was very sharp, but
the noise it made promised to betray him, and he was obliged to use it
with extreme caution. Bracing the slat with one shoulder, he worked
the saw very slowly, so that the wood should not vibrate. The process
was very slow, and twice he was obliged to conceal his saw and lie
down on the bed at the approach of the officer of the watch. After
working more than an hour, he succeeded in cutting off one of the
slats, just far enough above the deck to avoid the nails with which
it was secured. But it was fastened at the top as well as at the
bottom, and when he pulled it in to wrench it from its position, it
creaked horribly, and he was obliged to labor with it another half
hour, before he could pull it in far enough to permit his exit. In the
middle of the operation he was obliged to restore it partly to its
position, and lie down again, to escape the observation of the officer
of the anchor watch.

His care and patience were finally successful, though, if the sleepers
around him had not been very tired, some of them must have been
disturbed even by the little noise he made. The removal of the single
slat gave him an opening of about nine inches, which w