The grim walls of the prison showed near at hand, the road beyond, and at its edge a thicket. “We must creep or run across the road without the sentinels on the walls seeing us,” he said to Dean. “Can we do it?” “Yes; the darkness favors us.” “I am ready!” “Come on!” They made a quick dash across the road and paused in the shadow of the trees beyond. The prison looked silent and serene. Dimly they made out sentinels here and there on the walls, facing the blustering wind and partially blinded by it from viewing the road. “Safe!” murmured Marcus in thrilling tones. “Free!” breathed Dean wildly. Then they sped through the forest, and the distant lights of the reform school faded further and further away. In the eyes of the law they were fugitive criminals, seeking to baffle justice. In reality they were two brave, undaunted boys, seeking liberty only to work out a destiny that demanded their attention--two loyal hearts with a great motive in life, the righting of a great wrong, a battle against villainy, in the interests of innocence and the right! CHAPTER XX. THE FLIGHT FROM PRISON. Dean Mercer was older and better educated than Marcus Ellison, and yet the latter took the lead in the first stage of their hurried flight from the vicinity of the reform school as he had done in the initial steps of the plan of escape from its gloomy precincts. “I’ve thought it all out,” he told Dean as they ran along. “You just trust in me and we’ll soon be safe from pursuit.” They met no one in their flight. There was a reason for this. As they came to the end of the thicket a rocky waste showed, and sterile and difficult to traverse as it was, Marcus insisted on crossing it. “You see, Dean,” he explained, “no one will think that we went this way. Of course the warden and his men will search for us, but they will think that we went citywards.” “Or west?” “Exactly. Once we cross this waste we come to the marshy lowlands along the river, and beyond that is a still more desolate waste. We must try to get other clothes and gradually change our appearance so that we wouldn’t be recognized on description. In a week or two we can dare to venture back to civilization----” “A week or two?” repeated the dismayed Dean. “Yes.” “Lose all that time?” “From what?” “From--from----” “I know what you are going to say,” interrupted Marcus sagely. “You think I ought to be on the track of those papers and you after your enemies. Now I think different. What good is it if we are captured again?” “That’s so, but if I could once reach my friends----” “They wouldn’t dare to recapture you?” “No.” “You think so?” “I do.” “You are very much mistaken. You don’t think far enough, Dean; you believe too fully in human nature. Why, your friends all believe you to be a thief.” Dean sighed dejectedly. “If you dared to go back to Millville or Springfield you would at once be arrested.” “And convicted?” “Circumstances are against you.” “But I could prove----”