“Is that so?” continued the Cornishman. “Poor fellow! I wonder where he came from. As a matter of fact, I thought you’d had a visit from the escaped convict. Haven’t you heard? It’s in this morning’s paper. A prisoner got away from Parkhurst yesterday afternoon. It is supposed that he stole a boat and crossed to the mainland. There’s a boat missing at Yarmouth. Any damage done?”
Brandon and Craddock, breathing heavily, shook their heads. Heavitree had barked his knuckles in the struggle, but decided that “it was nothing to write home about.” The madman, exhausted by his efforts, was lying comparatively still, but apparently uninjured.
The rapid beats of a steamer’s paddles caused a general rush to fend off the boats lying alongside the Kestrel. One of the passenger boats plying between Yarmouth and Lymington was coming up the river and throwing out a tremendous wash. Further down stream anchored yachts were rolling heavily in the breaking swell, while tons of water were receding from the mud-flats in advance of the quickly moving vessel.
As she passed, one of the passengers standing aft noticed the bound figure on the Kestrel’s deck and called his companions’ attention to it. Then, raising his hands trumpet-wise to his mouth, he shouted:
“We’ll come for him as soon as we can.”
The steamer continued on her way to the pier, leaving the Kestrel rolling so heavily in her swell that Heavitree had to steady the helpless captive lest he should be jerked overboard.
Half an hour later a large rowing boat with a boatman and the two passengers from the steamer came alongside.
“So you’ve got him, sir,” said one of the latter. “I hope he didn’t give you much trouble.”
“Not much,” replied Mr. Grant. “Who is he?”
The attendant, for such he was, explained. The madman was an inmate of a private mental hospital a few miles from Yarmouth. Usually he was quite docile, but there were occasions when he became violent. More than once by a display of considerable cunning he had broken out of the establishment, and invariably he had made his way to the little seaport and had taken possession of an unattended boat.