Discovery, extra labour, the lash, more irons, and the chance of evasion gone; all those displayed, as it were, before Abel Dell's gaze as he thought of his sister waiting for them with that boat all plainly seen by the gleaming light of that lantern as the soldiers came steadily on. It was absolutely impossible that the sergeant and his four men, whom the light had revealed quite plainly to Abel Dell, could pass him without something unusual occurred. The sergeant was carrying his lantern swinging at arm's length, on his left side, and the bottom as he passed would only be a few inches above the prisoner's head. Abel knew all this as he pressed his teeth together to keep down the agonising feeling of despair he felt already as the men came on in regular pace, with the barrels of the muskets and their bayonets gleaming, and he expected to hear an exclamation of astonishment with the command "Halt!"--when something unusual did happen. For all at once, just as the back of Abel's head must have loomed up like a black stone close by the sergeant's path, and the rays of light glistened on his short, crisp, black hair, there came a loud croaking bellow from down in the swamp by the crook, and Dinny exclaimed aloud: "Hark at that now!" "Silence in the ranks!" cried the sergeant fiercely; and then, as if the Irishman's words were contagious, he, turning his head as did his men towards the spot whence the sound proceeded, exclaimed, "What was it?" "One of them lovely crockidills, sergeant dear--the swate craytures, with that plisant smile they have o' their own. Hark at him again!" The same croaking roar arose, but more distant, as if it were the response to a challenge. "Don't it carry you home again sergeant, dear?" "Silence in the--How, Dinny?" said the sergeant, good-humouredly, for the men were laughing. "Why, my mother had a cow--a Kerry cow, the darlint--and Farmer Magee, half a mile across the bog, had a bull, and you could hear him making love to her at toimes just like that, and moighty plisant it was." "And used he to come across the bog," said the sergeant, "to court her?" "And did he come across the bog to court her!" said Dinny, with a contemptuous tone in his voice. "And could you go across the bog courting if Farmer Magee had put a ring through your nose, and tied you up to a post, sergeant dear? Oh, no! The farmer was moighty particular about that bull's morals, and niver let him out of a night." "Silence in the ranks! 'Tention!" said the serjeant. "Half left!" _Tramp! tramp! tramp! tramp_, and the men passed round the end of the building just as the alligator bellowed again. Abel drew a long breath and rapidly drew himself through the hole--no easy task and Bart began follow, but only to stick before he was half-way through. "I'm at it again," he whispered. "Natur' made me crooked o' purpose to go wrong at times like this." Abel seized his hands, as he recalled the incident at the cottage.