In the second case the prisoner got off by an oversight of the judge. This happened at Sacramento. The man had been caught redhanded in the act of murder, but in accordance with the possibilities of American law had been bailed out. At the sitting of the court the man surrendered, and the responsibility of his bondsman there ended. This was the preliminary inquiry, and what the judge had to decide was whether the man should be held to answer the charge before a jury, a process akin to our magisterial inquiry. After hearing the evidence, the judge "held the prisoner to answer," but omitted the next formula of delivering him into the custody of the sheriff. It was accordingly the business of only a single person to look after the prisoner. That person was himself, and judging he would be better outside, he walked out, and has not since been captured.

The third case is less nearly connected with legal formula. A sheriff had, after a hot chase, caught a prisoner charged with shooting a fellow-practitioner at the bar of an hotel. As there was some talk of rescue, the sheriff, a determined fellow, spared no precaution. He had the prisoner bound and carried into a substantial log-hut. Arming himself to the teeth, he determined to keep watch himself

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through the night. He barricaded the door, and for greater safety slept across it, placing his prisoner in the corner remotest from the door.

"I guess," he said, as he lay down, "if they take the boy they'll have to stride over my body."

At daybreak he was awakened by a cold draught, and looking round saw that he was the sole occupant of the hut. The prisoner's friends had raised one corner of the hut with a screw-jack, the prisoner had rolled himself out, and was already well across the border.

CHAPTER XII.

THE HEATHEN CHINEE.

Ir is a far cry from San Francisco to Yokohama, the distance seeming the greater by reason of the loneliness of the way. Nineteen days are occupied in crossing 4,700 miles of water, and during all that time till within a hundred miles of Yokohama we do not see a sail or other sign of human life. Life of any kind except that borne along by the ship herself has been curiously absent. One day a missionary from Illinois created some excitement by discovering a whale; but it turned out to be only a porpoise. Opportunities for observing the common objects of the sea are limited in Illinois.

Save for the albatross the great waste of water bounded by the horizon would be absolutely lifeless. But the albatross we have always with us. Shortly after land had faded

from sight three

attached themselves to the

ship, and through a wild, wet day followed it, sometimes swooping far ahead as if impatient of its slow progress, and then returning quietly to talk the matter over in our wake. On the fourth day the number was increased to nine, at which it steadily stood. It is hard to say whether they are always the same birds, and much kindly thought is bestowed upon their sleeping arrangements. Wherever they sleep or howsoever they rest, they are always full of life and strength and grace, careering round the ship, and never tired of their one game, which consists of getting a clear run with one or two flaps of their wings, then with graceful swoop coming down to the water's edge and seeing which can go nearest to the waves without wetting the tip of one wing. One Sunday afternoon, to the scandal of the missionaries, of whom we have six on board, they began playing" cart-wheels," in close imitation of the London street boy; but they soon tired of this, and went back to the prize skimming-game, which they have played incessantly ever since.

One day a ship in full sail bound east passed us. The day after, when within a hundred miles of port, we had a visitor in the shape of a dove. Like the one despatched by Noah, it had been out over the waste of waters in search of land, and finding none

gladly took refuge on our ark. It sat for hours on one of the yardarms, and regarded with profound interest the crowd of Chinese playing dominoes on the lower deck. In the afternoon came also a couple of white albatross, which gaily escorted us till night fell upon the ship almost under the shadow of land.

A wreck on the Atlantic is bad enough, but a wreck on the Pacific is almost hopeless. On a recent passage of one of these steamers the look-out discovered far on the lee what looked like an abandoned junk. Bearing down upon it, signs of life were noted, and a boat was prepared for the rescue. The steamer bearing close down upon the junk and having too much way on her passed it. Whereupon seven half-starved Japanese, who had been eagerly watching her approach, believing the steamer was after all abandoning them, flung themselves upon the deck with a despairing shriek, and all that could be seen was half a dozen skeleton hands waving over the bulwarks of the junk-a mute appeal to relent and rescue them. When the Japanese were taken off they could scarcely crawl across the deck of the steamer, and one died the same night, delirious with his first meal. It was a junk, rice laden, and had been driven out to sea by a typhoon. Three long months