the bowl.  Having drunk as much as he thought prudent, and thanked his unknown friend for his attention, Jack again lay down on the straw, and indulged himself with another nap, intending to get up as soon as it was perfectly dark.  The strong potation he had taken, combined with fatigue and anxiety he had previously undergone, made him oversleep himself, and when he awoke it was just beginning to grow light.  Cursing himself for his inertness, Jack soon shook off this drowsiness, and set to work in earnest.  Availing himself of certain inequalities in the door, he soon managed to climb up to the roof; and securing his feet against a slight projection in the wall, began to use the fork with great effect.  Before many minutes elapsed, he had picked a large hole in the plaster, which showered down in a cloud of dust; and breaking off several laths, caught hold of a beam, by which he held with one hand, until with the other he succeeded, not without some difficulty, in forcing out one of the tiles.  The rest was easy.  In a few minutes more he had made a breach in the roof wide enough to allow him to pass through.  Emerging from this aperture, he was about to descend, when he was alarmed by hearing the tramp of horses’ feet swiftly approaching, and had only time to hide himself behind one of the largest sign-boards before alluded to when two horsemen rode up.  Instead of passing on, as Jack expected, these persons stopped opposite the cage, when one of them, as he judged from the sound, for he did not dare to look out of his hiding place, dismounted.  A noise was next heard, as if some instrument were applied to the door with the intent to force it open, and Jack’s fears were at once dispelled, At first, he had imagined they were officers of justice, come to convey him to a stronger prison:  but the voice of one of the parties, which he recognised, convinced him they were his friends.

“Look quick, Blueskin, and be cursed to you!” was growled in the deep tones of Jonathan Wild.  “We shall have the whole village upon us while you’re striking the jigger.  Use the gilt, man!”

“There’s no need of picklock or crow-bar, here, Mr. Wild,” cried Jack, placing his hat on the right arm of the guide-post, and leaning over the board, “I’ve done the trick myself.”

“Why, what the devil’s this?” vociferated Jonathan, looking up.  “Have you broken out of the cage, Jack?”

“Something like it,” replied the lad carelessly.

“Bravo!” cried the thief-taker approvingly.

“Well, that beats all I ever heard of!” roared Blueskin.

“But are you really there?”

“No, I’m here,” answered Jack, leaping down.  “I tell you what, Mr. Wild,” he added, laughing, “it must be a stronger prison than Willesden cage that can hold me.”

“Ay, ay,” observed Jonathan, “you’ll give the keepers of his Majesty’s jails some trouble before you’re many years older, I’ll warrant you.  But get up behind, Blueskin.  Some one may observe us.”