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1We were joined by no stragglers from the village, for the weather was cold and threatening, the way dreary, the footing
2bad, darkness coming on, and the people had good fires in-doors and were keeping the day. A few faces hurried to glowing
3windows and looked after us, but none came out. We passed the finger-post, and held straight on to the churchyard. There
4we were stopped a few minutes by a signal from the sergeant's hand, while two or three of his men dispersed themselves
5among the graves, and also examined the porch. They came in again without finding anything, and then we struck out on
6the open marshes, through the gate at the side of the churchyard. A bitter sleet came rattling against us here on the
7east wind, and Joe took me on his back. Now that we were out upon the dismal wilderness where they little thought I had
8been within eight or nine hours and had seen both men hiding, I considered for the first time, with great dread, if we
9should come upon them, would my particular convict suppose that it was I who had brought the soldiers there? He had
10asked me if I was a deceiving imp, and he had said I should be a fierce young hound if I joined the hunt against him.
11Would he believe that I was both imp and hound in treacherous earnest, and had betrayed him? It was of no use asking
12myself this question now. There I was, on Joe's back, and there was Joe beneath me, charging at the ditches like a
13hunter, and stimulating Mr. Wopsle not to tumble on his Roman nose, and to keep up with us. The soldiers were in front
14of us, extending into a pretty wide line with an interval between man and man. We were taking the course I had begun
15with, and from which I had diverged in the mist. Either the mist was not out again yet, or the wind had dispelled it.
16Under the low red glare of sunset, the beacon, and the gibbet, and the mound of the Battery, and the opposite shore of
17the river, were plain, though all of a watery lead colour. With my heart thumping like a blacksmith at Joe's broad
18shoulder, I looked all about for any sign of the convicts. I could see none, I could hear none. Mr. Wopsle had greatly
19alarmed me more than once, by his blowing and hard breathing; but I knew the sounds by this time, and could dissociate
20them from the object of pursuit. I got a dreadful start, when I thought I heard the file still going; but it was only a
21sheep-bell. The sheep stopped in their eating and looked timidly at us; and the cattle, their heads turned from the wind
22and sleet, stared angrily as if they held us responsible for both annoyances; but, except these things, and the shudder
23of the dying day in every blade of grass, there was no break in the bleak stillness of the marshes. The soldiers were
24moving on in the direction of the old Battery, and we were moving on a little way behind them, when, all of a sudden, we
25all stopped. For there had reached us on the wings of the wind and rain, a long shout. It was repeated. It was at a
26distance towards the east, but it was long and loud. Nay, there seemed to be two or more shouts raised together,--if one
27might judge from a confusion in the sound. To this effect the sergeant and the nearest men were speaking under their
28breath, when Joe and I came up. After another moment's listening, Joe (who was a good judge) agreed, and Mr. Wopsle (who
29was a bad judge) agreed. The sergeant, a decisive man, ordered that the sound should not be answered, but that the
30course should be changed, and that his men should make towards it "at the double." So we slanted to the right (where the
31East was), and Joe pounded away so wonderfully, that I had to hold on tight to keep my seat. It was a run indeed now,
32and what Joe called, in the only two words he spoke all the time, "a Winder." Down banks and up banks, and over gates,
33and splashing into dikes, and breaking among coarse rushes: no man cared where he went. As we came nearer to the
34shouting, it became more and more apparent that it was made by more than one voice. Sometimes, it seemed to stop
35altogether, and then the soldiers stopped. When it broke out again, the soldiers made for it at a greater rate than
36ever, and we after them. After a while, we had so run it down, that we could hear one voice calling "Murder!" and
37another voice, "Convicts! Runaways! Guard! This way for the runaway convicts!" Then both voices would seem to be stifled
38in a struggle, and then would break out again. And when it had come to this, the soldiers ran like deer, and Joe too.
39The sergeant ran in first, when we had run the noise quite down, and two of his men ran in close upon him. Their pieces
40were cocked and levelled when we all ran in. "Here are both men!" panted the sergeant, struggling at the bottom of a
41ditch. "Surrender, you two! and confound you for two wild beasts! Come asunder!" Water was splashing, and mud was
42flying, and oaths were being sworn, and blows were being struck, when some more men went down into the ditch to help the
43sergeant, and dragged out, separately, my convict and the other one. Both were bleeding and panting and execrating and
44struggling; but of course I knew them both directly. "Mind!" said my convict, wiping blood from his face with his ragged
45sleeves, and shaking torn hair from his fingers: "I took him! I give him up to you! Mind that!" "It's not much to be
46particular about," said the sergeant; "it'll do you small good, my man, being in the same plight yourself. Handcuffs
47there!" "I don't expect it to do me any good. I don't want it to do me more good than it does now," said my convict,
48with a greedy laugh. "I took him. He knows it. That's enough for me." The other convict was livid to look at, and, in
49addition to the old bruised left side of his face, seemed to be bruised and torn all over. He could not so much as get
50his breath to speak, until they were both separately handcuffed, but leaned upon a soldier to keep himself from falling.
51"Take notice, guard,--he tried to murder me," were his first words. "Tried to murder him?" said my convict,
52disdainfully. "Try, and not do it? I took him, and giv' him up; that's what I done. I not only prevented him getting off
53the marshes, but I dragged him here,--dragged him this far on his way back. He's a gentleman, if you please, this
54villain. Now, the Hulks has got its gentleman again, through me. Murder him? Worth my while, too, to murder him, when I
55could do worse and drag him back!" The other one still gasped, "He tried--he tried-to--murder me. Bear--bear witness."
56"Lookee here!" said my convict to the sergeant. "Single-handed I got clear of the prison-ship; I made a dash and I done
57it. I could ha' got clear of these death-cold flats likewise--look at my leg: you won't find much iron on it--if I
58hadn't made the discovery that he was here. Let him go free? Let him profit by the means as I found out? Let him make a
59tool of me afresh and again? Once more? No, no, no. If I had died at the bottom there," and he made an emphatic swing at
60the ditch with his manacled hands, "I'd have held to him with that grip, that you should have been safe to find him in
61my hold." The other fugitive, who was evidently in extreme horror of his companion, repeated, "He tried to murder me. I
62should have been a dead man if you had not come up." "He lies!" said my convict, with fierce energy. "He's a liar born,
63and he'll die a liar. Look at his face; ain't it written there? Let him turn those eyes of his on me. I defy him to do
64it." The other, with an effort at a scornful smile, which could not, however, collect the nervous working of his mouth
65into any set expression, looked at the soldiers, and looked about at the marshes and at the sky, but certainly did not
66look at the speaker.
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