University of Virginia Library

26. CHAPTER XXVI.
How it appeared that Robin Day had no such great cause to plume
himself on his adroitness.

Having reached the ground, and fortunately,
without being seen by any one, notwithstanding
that the street was full of people, I stole out of the
town, taking a course, indicated by the north-star,
(the night being extremely bright and beautiful,)
which I knew from having, before supper, consulted
a large map that hung in the bar-room, led to
the nearest waters of the Chesapeake. The moment
I found myself clear of the crowd and the town,
and, as I could not doubt, upon the proper road, I
quickened my pace, or rather, I ran as fast as I
could, determined to leave no effort untried to
put myself out of the danger of pursuit by Mr.
John Dabs. What he had told me of my friend
Dicky Dare leaving Philadelphia by the Wilmington
road the preceding day, convinced me I could
not be far behind my martial companion in misfortune;
whom I was quite certain I should find in
company with the first soldiers I might overtake on
the road; and some gallant band or other, I doubted
not, I should stumble upon before morning, provided
I employed due diligence in my nocturnal
march. Of this diligence I felt very capable, notwithstanding
my having had so little sleep—I might

almost say, no sleep at all for so many nights in succession.
With Mr. John Dabs so close behind me,
I felt, and knew I should continue to feel, no inclination
to lose a moment in rest and inaction; for,
though I had outwitted that worthy personage once,
I thought it highly improbable I should ever, if again
in his hands, have an opportunity to do so a second
time.

The consciousness, however, of having out-generalled
this crafty individual, beaten him, an experienced
and veteran warrior, at his own weapons, was
I may say, one of the many stimulants I had to
nerve me on to new and more manly exertions.
The reflection of my victory over him was, first,
satisfactory, as having released me from the meshes
of the law; but it was a subject of equal, if not
greater exultation, as an evidence of my own wisdom
and address. I began to feel that my morning
resolution had completed my education, and carried
me over the last barrier between youth and manhood.
“Yes,” said I to myself, swelling with a
sense of dignity, a consciousness of resource and
importance I had not before felt, “he who can outwit
John Dabs the constable, need not fear a conflict
with any man. Treat every man as a rogue
until he proves himself honest, and one will be sure
to escape roguery!”

The only unhappiness in this case, as I may here
state, though it was a long time before I discovered
it, was, that besides duping Mr. John Dabs so handsomely,
I had duped another individual much more
egregiously; and that individual was—myself. Mr.
John Dabs had, after all, told me nothing but the
truth. Instead of being sent after me, to arrest and
bear me back to prison, he was, in reality, what he
had professed, an emissary employed by my patron to

bear me the good news of M'Goggin's recovery,
and conduct me home; for, it seems, upon learning
my friend Dicky Dare had also fled, and with a design
to play the soldier, he shrewdly suspected
Dicky would decoy me into the same enterprise,
and that something more was necessary to my restoration
than a mere message of recall addressed to
Mr. Bloodmoney; to whom it might admit of a
question whether, under such circumstances, I would
report myself. It was, perhaps, unlucky that the
ambassador had been selected from among the constabulatory;
but I am not certain I should not have
been struck with quite as much terror at the appearance
of a private messenger, any person, in truth,
coming from our town, and played him the same
trick I had practised on honest John Dabs.

And thus it happened, that my first exercise of
newborn wisdom was entirely at my own expense;
which is, I believe, the usual way in which it is
exercised; wisdom being a kind of edge-tool, wherewith
young philosophers are more apt to cut their
own fingers than to employ it to a profitable purpose.
Had I been less sagacious, less bent upon guarding
myself from the rogueries of my species, I should
have saved myself a deal of trouble and adventure,
of affliction and peril, which I was now destined to
encounter. But I should have also lost the opportunity
of seeing the world and gaining my experience
in the shortest possible time, as well as of arriving
at certain discoveries of no little consequence and
influence over my future fortunes.