"
"Yes," said Willis, plying the file with redoubled energy, "this iron
gives me more bother than I anticipated; but it is the nature of iron
to be hard; however, it will not be long before we are all out of
bondage, as your reverence calls it."
"May not the warder discover our escape, and raise an alarm in time
to retake us?" inquired the missionary.
"No, I think not," replied the captain; "thanks to our habit of
sleeping with our faces to the wall, he will be deceived by the
dummies we have placed in the beds, for he always approaches on
tip-toe not to awake us."
"That may be for the first round; but the second will assuredly
disclose our absence."
"Very likely," remarked Willis; "he will then go right up to the beds,
and shake the dummies by the shoulders, and say, Does your honor not
know that it is ten o'clock, and that your breakfast is cooling? The
dummies will, of course, not condescend to reply, and then--but what
matters? By that time we shall have shaken out our top-sail, and
pursuit will be out of the question. I should like to see the craft
that will overtake us when once we are a couple of miles ahead."
"Poor man!" said the missionary, sighing; "our escape may, perhaps,
cost him his place."
"No fear of that," said Willis; "perhaps, at first, he will make an
attempt to tear his hair, but, as he wears a wig, that will not do
much mischief.
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