Produced by ellinora, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) Walled In [Illustration: THE WALLED IN REGIMENT.] Walled In A True Story of Randall’s Island BY William O. Stoddard AUTHOR OF “Dab Kinzer,” “Crowded out of Crowfield,” “Saltillo Boys,” etc., etc. _Illustrated_ [Illustration] New York Chicago Toronto Fleming H. Revell Company M DCCC XCIX Copyright, 1897, BY FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. THE HIGH STONE WALL 9 II. SUPPER TIME 20 III. EVENING VISITORS 31 IV. BEHIND BOLTS AND BARS 42 V. JIM’S PLOT FOR LIBERTY 51 VI. PLANS FOR ACTION 61 VII. ONE PLAN THAT FAILED 70 VIII. NEW IDEAS THAT CAME 80 IX. GETTING OVER THE WALL 91 X. A NEW HOME OF REFUGE 102 XI. JIM’S HIDING PLACE 114 XII. THE STOLEN MONEY 124 ILLUSTRATIONS. THE WALLED IN REGIMENT. _Frontispiece_ THE SILENT PRINTING OFFICE. _Facing p._ 48 THEY ALL STOOD STILL WHILE THE DRUM BEAT. “ “ 82 Walled In I THE HIGH STONE WALLS When the world was made, a number of islands were loosely scattered around at the mouth of the Hudson River. To this day, the old river works steadily on, trying to change the saltness of the Atlantic by pouring in fresh water, and trying to widen its own mouth by washing away these islands, but the ocean is as salt as it was a thousand years ago and the islands are of about the same size that they ever were, so far as anybody can see. When they were put there, however, and for nobody knows how long afterward, there was not a boy or girl to have been found upon either of them, while nowadays there are swarms and swarms, from every nation this side of Asia, and they are of all sorts and sizes. Some of the ways and doings of those boys and girls cannot be rightly told without first asking those who are to hear the story to take a look at a map of New York City and of the land and water around it. The map shows everything pretty clearly excepting the people and the houses they live in. One of the boys belonging to this story might have required a sharp search to find him, on a particular morning, early in the spring. Not that he seemed to be hiding, or that he was alone. On the contrary, he stood nearly in the middle of a long line of boys. There were over four hundred of them, dressed all alike, in jackets and trousers of dark, thick gray cloth. Their caps and shoes were of the same pattern, all along the line.