chamber."

Lynde looked at him blankly.

"A chamber with walls thickly cushioned, to prevent violent patients
from inflicting injury on themselves," explained the doctor. "_I_, you
see, was considered a very bad case indeed! Meanwhile, Morton, the
under-keeper, was in the garden, and escaped; but unfortunately, in his
excitement, he neglected to lock the main gate after him. Morton gave
the alarm to the people in the village, who, I am constrained to say,
did not behave handsomely. Instead of coming to our relief and assisting
to restore order, which might easily have been done even then, they
barricaded themselves in their houses, in a panic. Morton managed to get
a horse, and started for G--In the meantime the patients who had made
the attack liberated the patients still in confinement, and the whole
rushed in a body out of the asylum and spread themselves over the
village."

"That must have been the crowd I saw in the streets when I sighted the
town," said Lynde, thinking aloud.

"If you saw persons in the street," returned the doctor, "they were not
the townsfolk. They kept very snug, I assure you. But permit me to
finish, Mr."--

"My name is Lynde."

"Morton," continued the doctor, bowing, "having secured several
volunteers before reaching G--, decided to return with what force he
had, knowing that every instant was precious. On his way back he picked