your trying to escape—you can’t do it. So look sharp and mind your footing, and keep close to me.”

     He took a knife and cut the cords that bound Leonard, for they were so swelled with the rain that it was impossible to untie them.

     Leonard leaped to the ground, and stretched his limbs, for they were cramped and painful.

     “Now walk ahead of me,” was the command, and the two proceeded forward, Leonard’s mind being active and on the alert for some means of escape from his strange custody.

     They were walking parallel with the edge of the water, some rods distant from it.

     Suddenly, Leonard turned abruptly to the right and fled. He rushed directly toward the murmuring waves, and stumbled across a small skiff.

     A yell of warning followed him, but he leaped into the boat, seized the oars, and rowed rapidly from the shore.

     The man reached the water’s edge just too late. With an exclamation of baffled rage, he fired two pistol shots.

     Leonard rowed vigorously, and soon put quite a distance between himself and the shore. He hoped, in the darkness, to confuse and outwit his pursuer.

     But all at once he heard a suspicious sound, and paused to listen.

     It was the sound of oars.

     The strokes were quick and strong, and were made by more than one pair of arms. They came from more than one direction, too.

     The conviction flashed upon Leonard’s mind that other boats were at hand, and that he was pursued. He threw all his energy into his work, and rowed rapidly. Even as he did so, he was conscious that the odds were against him, but his spirits did not sink, nor did his efforts abate. Although the bow of the little skiff cut the waves gallantly, and shot a stream of seething foam out either side, she was rapidly gained upon. Soon Leonard could hear the strokes of the pursuing oars even while his own were in motion, and they gradually but surely grew more distinct.

     Even when it became a certainty that he must be overtaken, he calmly awaited the course of events, not without fear, but still cool and self-possessed.

     CHAPTER VI. UNDERGROUND.

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