Part 45 (1/2)

”Want any help? Oh, all right then!”

”Did you think you'd get out that way, youngster?” said Shackle, as the h stairs

”I thought I'd try,” said the lad stiffly

”Took a lot o' trouble for nothing, boy,” said the sler ”I co Don't coain without Jeht you'd get away, did you?” said the sht to have known better, boy You wouldn't be kept here, if there was a way for you to escape”

Archy felt too ler turned to his son

”What's the matter with you?”

”Bit of a tumble, father, that's all,” said the boy cheerfully, as he placed his hand to the back of his head

”You should take care, then; rocks are harder than heads Hi! You Jemmy Dadd!”

”Hullo!” came out of the darkness

”Get To a bushel or two o' lih for a pigeon to go in and out It'll give hister, on with you Show the lanthorn, Jemmy”

The ler and his son co on behind; and ten minutes later the prisoner was seated in his old place in the darkness, with Ram's basket of provisions for consolation As he sat there, listening to the departing footsteps, and feeling more and more that it was quite true,--escape must be impossible down the cliff, or else they would not have left hiuarded,--there was the dull, heavy report of the closing trap-door, and the rattle and snap of bolts, and that followed by the ru down of the pieces of stone

He had pretty well thought out the correct theory of this noise, that it was on purpose to hide the trap-door fro eyes lers would not have had recourse to so cluain, as he sat there wearied out and despondent, for in the ood as achieved, and noas face to face with the fact, after all that labour, that it had been in vain, and he was more a prisoner than ever

”Not quite so badly off as soht, as, er he felt, he stretched out his hand for the basket Not bread and water, but good tasty provisions, and--”What's this in the bottle?” he asked hiood wholesoot everything for the next half-hour in the enjoyment of a heartyto the opening to sit there and look out at the evening sky, he dropped off fast asleep, and akened by the colers, who busied themselves in the repairs of the broken wall

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

That day Jeht him his food, and the next day, and the next

”What did itthe bearer while he was employed at the mason work; but when that was over, he felt puzzled at Raan to wonder whether the boy was ill in consequence of his fall, and he longed to ask, but, as everything he said to Dadd was received in gloomy silence, he felt indisposed to question the man, and waited, patiently or ie did co the next day with the basket; but his father and several other ht in--what he did not see