Bang! They were trying to break open the door. The next instant I was at the window. Screwed up, was it? No matter. Snatching up the fur cap and twisting it around my fist that it might serve as a sort of buffer or boxing-glove, and so protect my hand from broken glass, I knocked out enough of the framework, and of the glass, to allow me to scramble through, with no more serious hurt than a few scratches and some rents in my clothing. Within the next ten seconds I was across the yard, and, by the aid of an empty box, had scaled the wall, and was over on the waste land. Here I stopped for an instant to take my bearings, for at that moment the inconsiderate moon broke out from behind the clouds, and with such brightness that I could scarcely hope to escape being seen, and so would have been an easy target for a passable marksman. The piece of waste land was enclosed on my right and on my left by corrugated zinc fences. I could easily have climbed them, but the scuffling and scraping of my feet and body against the metal would have advertised my whereabouts to the enemy; and by this time I knew that the two men, Smudgy and Parker, whom their leader had sent to cut off my retreat, must be close at hand. Selecting the fence which cast the darker shadow, I made straight for it, and then turning off at right angles, I scuttled along half crouching, and keeping as close to cover as a mouse keeps to the wainscot when hieing him to his hole. I was now going—and purposely—in the direction of the river, where the fencing was of wood, not of metal, and so might be scaled less noiselessly. Moreover, two or three stunted trees threw ragged shadows across the moonlight in that quarter, and so might serve to screen me from my pursuers. Just as I reached these trees I heard voices on the other side, so I dropped like a dead thing in the shadow at the foot of the fence, and lay listening.
I was none too soon, for the next instant someone scrambled up on the other side of the fence, to spy out the land. For a moment I feared that I was discovered, though I dared not look up. I knew by the place from which the sound came that the speaker was exactly over my head.
"Can't see anything, Smudgy," the voice said. "But I can hear the Dumpling breaking in the door. We'll hop over and make sure that Grant doesn't get out by the window. You go one side of that iron fence and I'll go the other, and then, between us, we can't miss him if he comes out; but stay in the shadow till you get to the house.
"Keep your eyes skinned, for if we were to miss our man this time, the Dumpling would be like a madman. Steady does it. Right O! But stop a moment. What's that in the shadow there, under the trees, just where I jumped?"
CHAPTER V.
A PAIR OF HANDCUFFS.
The fellow had walked some way in the direction of the house after vaulting the fence, but now he turned and retraced his steps towards the spot where I was lying, with my legs drawn up to my body. As he stopped to bend over me, I let out with my left foot, as viciously as a kicking horse, taking him in the stomach, and with such force that he doubled up like a hinged draught-board, and lay quite still.
Then I leapt to my feet.
"Jones! Jim! Wilson!" I shouted, using, haphazard, the first names which came to my tongue. "Here they are! Over the fence as fast as you can, and we'll nab the two of 'em!"
As I spoke I kicked out a heel behind me, scraping it against the fence as if someone were endeavouring to clamber up on the other side.