For a while I fled as though in a panic; then finding myself clear of the village I rested to recover my breath. What was I to do? Where was I to go? Should I press straight on as far as I could? But I became aware of a tiredness and stiffness of my whole body. I had been starved and tortured, and would probably collapse if I tried to go far without food. So I decided to make for Sunset Towers. I could hide there for the next day while the hunt was out. The Captain wouldn't give me up even if enquiries were made for me there. So I set off again, so weary that even the few miles ahead seemed a year's journey. But the thought of Staggers locked for the night in his own prison brought me wonderful consolation. I only hoped he wasn't too drunk to taste to the full the evil horrors of darkness. I didn't realize till I rose again and started on my way how much I had had to endure during those few days in the cell. The short rest by the road-side left every muscle stiffened as though run into a mould and set. And with the friction of my clothes the wounds across my back were chafed into an agonizing tenderness, so that with stiffness and soreness every step was a double torment. I was weak and exhausted too from want of food, and I yearned to lie down on the heath and rest again; but I dared not. I knew my stiffness would increase upon me tenfold, and I feared lest sleep should overtake me. And with that thought I hurried forwards, for I knew if I fell asleep I should be found by the officers, and I shuddered with naked terror at the possibility of being recaptured and haled back to torture. The new taste of freedom, with the prospect of the _Dolphin_ and my father only a week's tramp away, set the dread of imprisonment in black relief, till the fear of it became a haunting terror at my heels to spur me forward in spite of aches and pains. So I stepped on as swiftly as I could, crying with the agony of the rough clothes against my raw back, for indeed they seemed like rasps grating at my very bones. Before I reached Sunset Towers I was alarmed to see the east growing white with the morning. I hadn't realized what a time I had spent filing through my chains, nor indeed how laggingly I had crept the few miles from Rancey Bridge. For I was staggering now in a crazy zigzag, unconscious of everything except the goal before me and the need to reach it without delay. At last I touched the gate, where for a moment I leant against the post swaying dizzily, then with an effort passed on again for the last few steps, instinctively making for Jenny's window. And there indeed my strength failed me. I fell to the earth clutching at the ivy, and calling with what voice I could summon, "Jenny, Jenny, come and let me in." I sank on the ground and waited, so weary that almost with the uttering of my cry for help I would have been asleep. But Jenny had heard me. The window was flung up, and she called quietly down, "Tommy, is that you?"