Lewis meanwhile had broken through the crowd and started off at a rapid run. Several soldiers, serenos and others, chased him hotly, and shouted savage orders after him in Spanish, none of which he in the least comprehended.
When it came to running, Lewis was quite at home; they could not catch him. All along the water-front the chase continued, and Lewis was getting well away when he came to the palisadoes, by Fort St. Louis, where they projected into the river.
Finding himself likely to be cornered here, he was about to double back on his pursuers when he saw a number of skiffs drawn up in a row. To shove one of them off was but the work of an instant. There was a paddle in it, and he got clear of the levee before the serenos could reach him. They hailed the sentry at the gate, however, and he, running up, touched off his gun. But by this time Lewis had paddled out past a five-oared galley which lay near the bank. Keeping outside this and several other craft that lay crowded along the levee, he escaped up-stream and returned to the ark.
Captain Royce was disturbed when he learned that Moses had been made a prisoner. He knew the ways of the Spanish authorities well enough to understand that nothing could be done for a captive until the following day, and that to obtain Moses’ release was a problem. It was suggested that the best method of procedure would be to go to the prefect, or alcalde, the next day, with a substantial present.
As it chanced, however, the present was not needed. Moses succeeded in solving the problem himself. He found himself in disagreeable company—ten dirty negroes, thieves and fighters, some of them intoxicated; a number of French sailors, a few Mexicans, and a pirate or two from below the Belize. This motley crew received him with open arms and a shout of sinister welcome. They passed him round, picked his pocket, and even tried to strip him of his leather jacket, moccasins and coonskin cap.
But Moses had not been a fighter all his life without learning something of the science of self-defense; and finding that he was being stripped, he hit out at his tormentors with such force that they stood away from him, objurgating him for un mauvais Kaintock. Others stole upon him in the obscurity, and for an hour or so Moses was in his natural element.
What light there was came from a lantern suspended from a peg in a wooden post at the center of the enclosure. This post apparently supported the roof. After a time Moses backed against it and stood there on the defensive.
As the night advanced many of the prisoners lay down and slept; but the young arksman leaned against the post listening to all that went on. What would be done with him in the morning caused him anxiety.
The lantern went out at last; the candle was consumed; and after a time he caught the twinkle of a star through a chink in the roof of the building. It was near the top of the post, and led the boy to think that the roof was not very thick or strong there. He was accustomed to climbing trees; it occurred to him that he might break out, and he clasped the post with his arms and “shinned” up.
He had twelve or fifteen feet to climb before his head bumped into the roof. It did not feel very solid, and pressing his head up against it, he began giving upward pushes, grasping the post hard and jumping up. One of the covering boards yielded, and reaching up with one hand, he pushed it aside, got his head through the hole, and then climbed out on the roof.