puffing of the man in the corner, who had now resumed his pipe of
long clay.

The stillness was unexpectedly broken. The distant sound of a gun
reverberated through the air, apparently from the direction of the
county town.

"Be jiggered!" cried the stranger who had sung the song, jumping
up.

"What does that mean?" asked several.

"A prisoner escaped from the gaol--that 's what it means."

All listened. The sound was repeated, and none of them spoke but
the man in the chimney-corner, who said quietly, "I've often been
told that in this county they fire a gun at such times, but I never
heard it till now."

"I wonder if it is _my_ man?" murmured personage in cinder
gray.

"Surely it is!" said the shepherd, involuntarily. "And surely
we've seen him! That little man who looked in at the door by now,
and quivered like a leaf when he seed ye and heard your song."

"His teeth chattered, and the breath went out of his body," said
the dairyman.

"And his heart seemed to sink within him like a stone," said Oliver