University of Virginia Library

21. CHAPTER XXI.

While the shallop is flying away from the
town with the fugitives, we will return to the
prison and witness the issue of the events
which have transpired there.

The subtle ether inhaled by the keeper
produced the effect contemplated by Gordon,
as we have seen; but the condition of insensibility
was prolonged fortunately longer than
he intended, so powerful had been the inhalations
of the keeper in his desire to ascertain
what the odor might be. This great
length of the swoon was highly favorable to
Hugh, who was delayed above the time contemplated,
by the necessity of finding the cell
to which his father had been removed.

As Hugh left the office with the colonel,
the keeper began to come to himself. The
symptoms of returning consciousness were
shown in a convulsive, unconscious effort to
throw off the bonds which held him. Then
followed a sense of suffocation, caused by the
handkerchief tied across his mouth. His
full consciousness at length came to him,
and looking about he found himself in darkness.

`Where am I? What is this?' he muttered
through his enveloped lips. `What is
done to me? Bless me, I shouldn't wonder if
I was dead and laid out! What has come
over me? Dear me! my mouth is tied up
just like a dead person's! I wonder if I am
on a table! no I am in my chair. How
dark it is! Those noises are rats! no—they
are the feet of people walking by. I must
be in my office. But bless me, how come I
so! Hillooh! Help! Murder! Come and
help me! Lights! Lights!' he shouted at
the top of his lungs, struggling in vain to free
himself, though he slipped the handkerchief
from his mouth by a great effort. `Help!
Murder! Foul play! Lights and guns!
Mischief is in the wind! Help! help! help!'
he roared like a Bashan bull, each cry louder
than the other; for the poor keeper was
each moment becoming more and more
alarmed.

His cries soon brought his family out from
the dwelling, and caused person to stop at the
street door and try to break it in. But it
was too strong for their efforts. The under

keeper first entered in his drawers, with a
candle blazing in one hand, and a pistol in
the other.

`What is it?' he cried, as he ran in.

`I don't know more than you see. I am
tied in my chair, and have been gagged,' answered
the keeper with a ludicrous moan.
`Uunfasten me; but first turn the key and
let them in.'

The under keeper assisted by his wife and
a servant, succeeded in untying the keeper
and letting him free just as the door was
opened and let in a score of people variously
armed, at their head were two watchmen
and a constable.

`What is the matter? who is killed?' they
shouted.

`That I can't say, only it is not me, I find,'
answered the keeper, `though the hollowing
came from my lungs. What o'clock is it?'

`About quarter to nine,' answered two or
three voices.

`Well it ain't an hour since I was sitting
here with the doors open, the lamp alight,
and buying strawberries of a pretty young
Miss, and the next thing, I find myself tied in
my chair here, my mouth gagged, the room
dark, and the street door locked. If any of
you can explain it it is more than I can do.'

`Here is the basket of strawberries upset
in the corner,' cried a constable.

`And here is a bunch of flowers,' called
out another.

`Yes, she had flowers, too, and now I recollect
I was smelling at a little bottle she
said she found, which is the last thing I remember
till I found myself tied in my chair,
and by the very rope Colonel Ogilvie is to be
hanged with. It came in to-night. Now
this is all what I call a mystery, gentlemen.'

`Are all the prisoners safe?' asked a head
constable, who seemed to have his wits about
him. `Be sure this is some trap. Take
your keys and look to the cells. I'll wager
some of them have been out and done this.'

`No doubt! I fear it!' answered the keeper,
with alarm in his face, fearing the conse
quences to himself if any of his prisoners
had flown. Gad zounds! Here are my keys
lying on the floor! I thought I saw them on
the nail!'

`Here is a bunch on the nail,' said the
eager officer.

`Bless my stars! Here are two bunches
as like as two cheeses. I am bewitched!
The devil has been here to-night.'

`Look closely. Is not one bunch a counterfeit
of the other?' said a grey-bearded
watchman.

`You are right. This is the seal bunch.
Some mischief hath been brewing. It is a
mystery to me how I was bound and didn't
know it. Come, gentlemen, I will look at
my prisoners and see if this is their work.'

Thus speaking he left the office accompanied
by two of the officers. He had not
gone to the end of the passage before he
found the door, he was about to unlock, ajar.
He uttered an exclamation of surprise and
alarm, and hastened forward. Door after
door was wide open, and with an exclamation
of despair, he entered the hall surrounded
with cells. All these were shut to his
great relief. But he proceeded to call at
each, to ascertain if any were missing.

`What is the uproar, keeper?' cried the
man who had addressed Hugh through the
grating.

`You are there are you? Why I have
come to see if any of you are out. Somebody
has been wandering about here to-night, for
all the doors are unlocked.'

`I expect it's nobody but the carpenter you
sent to measure the colonel for his coffin. I
bade him make good measure, and long, for
hanged men stretch marvellously.'

`You bade him? who have you seen and
spoken with?' demanded the constable.

`A man who was here half an hour or less
ago. He came to the cell next to mine
which the colonel was taken from, as if
he expected to find him in it; but I directed
him to the felon's condemned cell.'

`Let us hasten thither,' gasped the keeper.

`I begin to suspect the worst that can
have happened. See, the door is open to the
cell, and look, the very cell is open!' he
cried as he came to it. `He has escaped!
He is not here! Colonel Ogilvie has escaped!'

For a moment the distressed keeper stood
staring into the empty cell as if he could not
believe his eyes. He appeared stunned by
the discovery.

`Heaven knows I can't explain this,' he
at length found voice enough to articulate.
`Let the alarm be at once given. It is possible
he may be on the premises. Let strict
search be made. This escape is unaccountable.'

The prison courts and the passages were
searched in vain, while the alarum bell gave
clamorous notice to the world of the escape
of a prisoner.

In the space of half an hour after the escape
of Colonel Ogilvie, the whole corps of
police was on the alert, every coach stopped,
every vessel was searched, and the bridges
watched. The keeper upon returning into
his office was overcome with rage and confusion
at the escape. In vain he tried to
account for his own condition, bound in a
chair, and insensible. All was mystery to
him.

`Do you recollect what you were last
doing?' asked the High Sheriff, who was on
the spot, and closely questioning him.

`I only recollect that while I was talking
with the young girl about the price of her
strawberries, she handed me a little smelling
bottle. Just then a carpenter with his box
of tools come in, and asked her the price of
the strawberries. As he walked round her I
recollect he knocked the keys off the nail
with his box, which was on his shoulder. But
I saw him pick them up and replace them,
and at the same time I ordered him out of
the door.'

`And instead of putting back the keys he
knocked down,' said the sheriff, `he placed
this counterfeit bunch on the nail, and kept
the real ones, with which he unlocked the
doors and released the prisoner.'

`That must have been it, Mr. Sheriff,' answered
the keeper. `But how could he have
done it and I awake?'

`You was not awake it seems, sir,' answered
the sheriff sternly. `You acknowledge
that you were bound in your chair without
knowing it.'

`That is true, and that is a mystery to me,
sir. I was not asleep, I must have been
struck and rendered insensible. The last
thing I remember I was smelling the bottle
to ascertain what the scent was.'

`And here is the bottle, sir,' said one of
the watchmen. `I just found it in the fire-place.'

`Let me look at it,' cried the sheriff.
`Now it is my opinion this contains some
soporific which put you to sleep suddenly.
I will test it. Who will smell of it.'

`I will, sir,' answered the keeper. `I
wish, if it is what you suspect, to shew you
that I could not help it. If it puts me to
sleep I shall not be so much blamed. If it
does not I suppose people will say I was drunk.
Give it to me.'

The sheriff placed it in his hand, and he
placed it to his nostrils. After three or four
strong inhalations his eyes closed, his head
sunk upon his breast, and his limbs relaxing
he fell backward wholly inanimate.

The sheriff and those who stood around
watching the effect beheld this result with
amazement.

`It's clear enough now,' said the sheriff as
he satisfied himself that the keeper lay perfectly
unconscious, `it is clear enough now
that this bottle contains some active volatile
essence which produces insensibility. He
says he took it from the strawberry girl.
There is no doubt that she was a party to
the abetting the escape, and this carpenter
another concerned in it. Throw water in
his face and bring him to.'

After some difficulty the keeper was restored
to animation and consciousness.

`Did it make me sleep, friends?' he asked
as he gazed around him.

`Yes, you have been as a dead man,' answered
the sheriff. `It is easily explained
now how you happened to suffer yourself to
be bound. The success of this experiment
has saved you from arrest. You have been
the victim of a deep laid plot.'

`Thank Heaven, then, that I am not so
much to be censured,' he answered with
looks of great relief. `The little minx, when
she handed me the bottle, asked me so innocently
to tell her what its odor was, for she
had found it in the street. I see clearly that
it was a plot.

`Let every search and inquiry be made for
this strawberry girl and this carpenter,' said
the sheriff to two of his officials. `Describe
the girl, master keeper.'

`She was as genteel a figure as one would
wish to see any where, about seventeen, with
fine dark eyes, a pretty rosy mouth, and beautiful
brown hair. She was pretty enough for
that matter.'

`Do you think she was a real strawberry girl?'

`She had a basket of strawberries which
you see are here now. She left them basket
and all, and I had not paid her.'

`This confirms my suspicions. Let me
see the basket? It is a regular strawberry
basket indeed, and has had use. But, nevertheless,
it is my opinion from your description,
that this strawberry girl was acting a
part. At any rate she was a party to the
conspiracy. Well, Collins,' cried the sheriff
to the head constable, who then came in,
`any tidings of the fugitive?'

`Nothing certain, sir. I learn that two
men on horseback were seen riding at full
speed down Court street and into Hanover
street, where the watchman says they passed
him at full speed, and the moment afterwards
he heard the alarum bell ring out.'

`This looks sucpicious. Horses may
have been resdy for the prisoner to escape
on,' said the sheriff. `Send mounted men at
once on their track.'

`I have despatched Hayley and Barnes, sir.'

`You have done well. No better men
could have been selected. Where did you
get horses?'

`At the nearest livery stable.'

`We should have a horse police. I have
before this shown the city the necessity of it.
Foot police is almost inefficient.'

`But I have more to add, sir. The two
horsemen had not passed into Hanover street
and more than got out of sight, before a
hackney coach made its appearance from up
Court street, and turning short into Sudbury
street, went down that street at full speed.'

`This is news! The prisoner was either
in the carriage or on one of the horses,' cried
the sheriff. `Which watchman saw the carriage?'

`Number 18.'

`Did he recognize it?'

`No, sir. But the alarum bell then pealing
out, and hearing the rattle sprung in the
direction of the prison, he suspected the carriage
and gave chase; but finding he had no
chance of coming up with it, he returned to
his post.'

`He should have followed till he came up
with it,' answered the sheriff. `But neither
horses nor coach can get out of the city unobserved,
thanks to our bridge-girdled city.
Send men to every bridge and to the neck.'

`I did this before coming here to report,'
answered the Chief of the Police; `and I instructed
the man who first struck upon their
track to follow it up, despatching a messenger
to me informing me of the direction.'

`You have done everything that could be
done, sir, your promptness does you credit.
We ought soon to hear from one or the other
of the avenues. Here comes a man mounted!'
he exclaimed, as a person rode up at top
speed, and drew rein at the door. `What is
the news, Darby?'

`Neither hack, nor saddle horse, has crossed
Charlestown bridge to-night, the toll-keeper
says. I left orders with him to stop any
that should try to pass.'

While he was speaking a second officer
galloped up, his horse foaming with spurring.

`Nothing like coach or mounted men have
left the city by the mill-dam avenue, captain,'
he reported, as he touched his cap to the
Chief of Police.

`Here comes my man that I despatched to
Cambridge and Cragie bridges,' said the Head
of the Police, as a third horseman dashed up
to the door of the prison. `Well what news?'

`Nothing has been seen of hack or coach
of any kind, nor of men on horseback. No
one has passed, even on foot, save those well
known.'

`We have now only to hear from the neck,'
said the sheriff. `Those horsemen and the
coach must have gone somewhere, and must
be traced to their stopping point.'