It is needless to say that he was a bold, dashing fellow, ready to dare anything and was astonished at nothing.

Pencroft at the beginning of the year had gone to Richmond on business, with a young boy of fifteen from New Jersey, son of a former captain, an orphan, whom he loved as if he had been his own child.

Not having been able to leave the town before the first operations of the siege, he found himself shut up, to his great disgust; but, not accustomed to succumb to difficulties, he resolved to escape by some means or other.

He knew the engineer-officer by reputation; he knew with what impatience that determined man chafed under his restraint.

On this day he did not, therefore, hesitate to accost him, saying, without circumlocution, "Have you had enough of Richmond, captain ?" The engineer looked fixedly at the man who spoke, and who added, in a low voice,-- "Captain Harding, will you try to escape ?" "When ?" asked the engineer quickly, and it was evident that this question was uttered without consideration, for he had not yet examined the stranger who addressed him.