They had a sort of farewell supper, and all sorts of messages were given to the two Lancers for friends and comrades in camp should they ever reach it.
Next morning, with a number of others, they left the prison as usual, their hearts beating wildly, for if all went well by that time to-morrow they hoped to be many miles away.
The caravan was to start about midday, and bartering had been finished. Sergius had a van driven by a lad and a droshky in which he himself travelled.
Jack and Linham with their friends went down to the arch under which Sergius’s van and droshky were kept at night, and they stood round talking and watching Sergius stow away his wares for the journey. They were at the back of the wagon, with the other prisoners all round them. Waiting until Sergius made them a sign that there was no one about, Jack and Linham popped into the wagon, were promptly hidden between two bales, and covered with a pile of rugs.
It seemed a very long time to them before they started; but presently, with a rumble, off they went, and as the wheels rolled from the stones to the more even metalled road a cheer burst forth.
‘That’s a signal from those friends who have followed us that we are safely out of the town,’ said Jack.
‘Ha, hum! I wish I were safely out of the wagon too,’ growled Linham; ‘I’m half-suffocated.’
‘If the chaps can only answer our names for us to-night, as they said they would try to do,’ said Jack, ‘that will give us a good start, providing our absence is not discovered until to-morrow.’
‘They will do all they can,’ said Linham; and, lulled by the motion of the wagon, both he and Jack fell asleep.
When they awoke they were standing still.