“DE COUNTERFEITER DONE BROKE OUT OB DE JAIL!”
Then there was a time. Two or three of the boys abandoned their partners at once, and hurried to the door to ask questions, while one or two more seized their hats, sneaked toward the back door, walked leisurely out, as if they merely wished to cool off, and then started on a rapid run for the jail.
Benny wished to follow them—and not for the purpose of bringing them back, either—and all of his mother’s reasoning powers and authority had to be exerted to keep her son from forsaking his guests. Strangest of all, Paul Grayson, who had throughout the evening made himself so agreeable to at least half a dozen of the young ladies that he was pronounced just too splendid for anything, had been among the first to run away! Benny said he never would have thought it of Paul, and his mother said the very same thing, while the girls, who but a few moments before had been loud in his praise, now clustered together, with very red cheeks, and agreed that if a mean old counterfeiter was more interesting than a lot of young ladies, why, they were sure that Mister Paul Grayson was entirely welcome to all he could see of the horrid wretch.
Still, the party went on, after a fashion, although some of the girls were rather absent-minded for a few moments, until they had determined what particularly cutting speeches they would make to their beaux when next they met them. They did not have long to wait, for soon the boys came straggling back, Sam Wardwell being the first to arrive, for, as on reaching the jail Sam could learn nothing, and found nothing to look at but the open door of the empty cell, he shrewdly determined that there might yet be time to get some more ice-cream if he hurried back. Somehow none of the girls abused him; on the contrary, they seemed so anxious to know all about the escape that Sam was almost sorry that he had not remained away longer and learned more.
Then Ned Johnston returned. He had been lucky enough to meet a man who had wanted to be deputy-sheriff and jail-keeper, but had failed; he told Ned that the jailer had stupidly forgotten to bolt the great door, after having examined the inside of the cell, as he did every night before retiring, to see if the prisoner had been attempting to cut through the walls. The prisoner had been smart enough to listen, and to notice that the bolts were not shot nor the key turned, so he had quietly walked out; and had not Mr. Wardwell met him on the street, and recognized him in spite of the darkness, and hurried off to tell the sheriff, no one would have known of the escape until morning. There was not the slightest chance of catching the prisoner again, the would-be deputy had said to Ned; there wasn’t brains enough in the sheriff and all his staff to get the better of a smart man; but things would be very different if proper men were in office.
When the party finally broke up, several boys were still missing; but as their absence gave several other boys the chance to escort two girls home instead of one, these faithful beaux determined that they had not lost so very much by remaining, after all.
Chapter X.
RECAPTURED.
ON the morning after Benny Mallow’s party hardly a boy started for the brook or the woods. This was not because the dissipation of the previous night had made them over-weary, or too heavy and late a supper had induced headaches, or the party itself had to be talked over. Each of these reasons might have kept a boy or two at home, but the real cause that prevented the majority going about their usual diversions was fear of meeting the escaped counterfeiter. Where the information came from no one thought to inquire; but the report was circulated among the boys quite early in the morning that the criminal was armed with two heavy revolvers that some secret confederate had passed through the window to him, and that he would on no account allow himself to be captured alive.