Page:The Campaign of the Jungle.djvu/261

Rh baldheaded, Leroy. I'm going to try to escape—and that's the end of it."

"Will you take any of the others along?"

"If they want to go."

"There won't a soul go—and I know it," responded the stout sailor, in positive tones.

When the other prisoners came in, he told them of Larry's plan. One and all of them agreed it was foolhardy.

"I don't believe there is any opening," said one. "Or if there is, it's so high up in the mountains that you'll never reach it."

"And what are you going to do for eating? That kettle of stew won't last forever," said another.

So the talk ran on, but the more he was opposed, the more headstrong did Larry become—and that, as old readers know, was very much like him.

"I shall go, and good-bye to all of you," he said, in conclusion. And then he shook hands with one after another, Leroy last of all. The Yorktown's man was trembling.

"I hate ter see ye do it, lad," he said. "It seems like going to death, but—but—hang it, I'll go along, so there!"