Then Mr. Haywood emerged from his store again, carrying a small satchel in his hand, and proceeded to the railroad depot.
Within ten minutes he was on board the train which was carrying Carlos from Hillsdale and on to safety. But, as has been before stated, he had no knowledge or suspicion of the presence of the escaped prisoner.
The station at which he alighted was perhaps a mile from the village which it was designed to accommodate. At that late hour there was no hangers-around present; they wereonly the baggageman, switch-tender, and an old woman who climbed aboard the train.
Mr. Haywood alighted at the opposite side of the track from which the depot stood, and quietly stepped beneath a shed. After the train departed again, the baggageman and switch-tender went within doors, and no living soul was in sight.
Then Mr. Haywood stepped cautiously forth, and, after a glance all around, walked briskly down a road that led in an opposite direction from the village. It was a road that was but little traveled, as was indicated by the thrifty growth of grass.
He proceeded half a mile, and then climbed a fence and made his way across a field. Another field was traversed, and then there appeared a thick clump of woods. Mr. Haywood plunged into the woods, and, with a readiness which indicated that the locality was familiar to him, made his way to an immense tree.
With surprising and undignified activity, he caught hold of a low-growing bough and swung himself up on one of the thick branches. At this elevation there was an aperture in the trunk of the tree which afforded access to a capacious cavity. Producing a small dark lantern from his pocket, and drawing the slide from the glass, Mr. Haywood proceeded to make a change in his toilet.
He divested himself of his black coat and donned a long linen duster which he took from the satchel. For his glossy “beaver” he substituted a rough-looking slouch hat. Then, after taking a brown mask from the satchel, he put therein the discarded garments, and thrust the satchel into the hollow place in the tree. The dark lantern he disposed of in a similar way. Next he tied his long whiskers back under his chin and fitted the mask over his face.
These preparations being completed, he descended to the ground. Resuming his walk, he soon emerged from the woods, and came to an open space.
He was near the sea-coast, and the sound of the wind and the waves could be distinctly heard. He walked with caution, listening and peering intently in every direction.