well I didn't, for, half an hour later, a troop of sodgers came up, and
some of them went in.

"They were led by that black villain who used to come wid messages from
Mr. O'Brian, and I have no doubt it was he who set the sodgers upon you.
Anyhow, they didn't find much there, but four of them waited till morning
inside, the others all going away, so that, if you had got out of the
river, they might catch ye in a trap.

"I waited till they had left this morning, thinking, I suppose, that it
was no use to stay longer, and then started to see if your honour were
here.

"Sometimes I thought I should find you, then again, I tould myself that
if you had been alive I must have seen you come up agin; for, knowing the
strength of the stream, and how fast you could swim, I could tell pretty
nigh about where you would come up, if you were keeping straight up the
river. How did you manage it at all, Master Walter?"

"I turned, and swam back again to the bank, Larry. I knew everyone would
be watching the middle of the river, and would not be looking at the
water in front of them. Of course, the stream took me up a long way. I
only came up once, on my back, took a breath, and went down again, and
the second time I was right under the bank and well out of sight, though
I could hear them talking above me. It was just when I looked round,
then, that I saw them throwing stones and firing into the middle of the
river, two hundred yards lower down, and after that I had only to keep on
swimming under water, close to the bank."

"And that is how ye managed it! It was a grand thought, entirely, to swim