“I fingered it for an hour, looking at it in every way, and then I saw that there were some small holes pricked.  Well, I could not ask the woman what they meant, as I had told her I picked it up; so I went across to an Irishman, whose acquaintance I had made the day before, and who had recommended me, if I wanted work, to hire one of these chairs and get a comrade to help me carry it.  I could see that he was a man who had seen better days.  I expect he had come over in the time of the troubles, and had been forced to earn his living as he could; so I went to him.

“‘I have got a message,’ I said, ’pricked on a piece of paper.  I picked it up, and am curious-like to know what it is about.’

“So he held it up to the light, and read out your message.

“‘I think,’ says he, ’it is some colleen who has made an appointment with her lover.  Maybe she has been shut up by her father, and thought it the best way to send him a message.’

“‘That is it, no doubt,’ says I; ’and it is plain that it never came to his hand.’

“The next day, I went to him again with the second letter.

“‘It’s lying you have been to me,’ he said.  ’It is some plot you are concerned in.’

“‘Well,’ says I, ’you are not far wrong.  I have some friends who have suffered for the Stuarts, and who have been laid by the leg, and it’s myself who is trying to get them out of the hands of their persecutors.’

“‘In that case, I am with you,’ he said, ’for I have suffered for the cause myself; and if you want assistance, you can depend upon me.’

“‘Thank you kindly,’ says I.  ’Just at present it is a one man job, but maybe, if I get them out, you will be able to give us some advice as to how we had best manage.’

“So that is how it stands, your honour.”

“And now, tell us how you got away, Mike.  You may guess how surprised we were, when we first made you out, believing that you were safe under lock and key at Harwich.”

“The matter was easy enough,” Mike said.  “It took me two or three days to get to understand the position of the place, with water all round it except on one side; and it was plain that, if I were to start running, it is little chance I should have if I did not hit upon the right road.  Luckily, they were mounting some cannon the day after you were taken away.  We were ordered to go out and lend a hand, so it was not long before I learnt enough to know which road I ought to take.  I was always a good runner, your honour, and many a prize have I carried off, at fairs in the old country, before troubles began.  So it seemed to me that, if I could have anything of a start, I ought to be able to get off.

“There was nearly half a mile betwixt the town and the place where the narrow ground, at whose end it stood, widened out into the country.  If I could only hold my own, as far as that, I could take to the woods and lanes and save myself.