not show. The thing was unfortunate; but after all not beyond remedy.
The escape was set for midnight, and he should easily be back by then.
He mounted the horse that Kent procured him, intending to make all
haste.

"How shall I reenter the stockade, sir?" he enquired at parting.

"You'll not reenter it," said Bishop. "When they've done with you
at Government House, they may find a kennel for you there until
morning."

Peter Blood's heart sank like a stone through water.

"But..." he began.

"Be off, I say. Will you stand there talking until dark? His
excellency is waiting for you." And with his cane Colonel Bishop
slashed the horse's quarters so brutally that the beast bounded
forward all but unseating her rider.

Peter Blood went off in a state of mind bordering on despair. And
there was occasion for it. A postponement of the escape at least
until to-morrow night was necessary now, and postponement must mean
the discovery of Nuttall's transaction and the asking of questions
it would be difficult to answer.

It was in his mind to slink back in the night, once his work at
Government House were done, and from the outside of the stockade
make known to Pitt and the others his presence, and so have them
join him that their project might still be carried out. But in