Roxy Hastings — page 112: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a. aa 7 Se > "st oa ,4% . a % ROXY HASTINGS. 103 tic man had administered half a dozen sounding blows upon the head and face of his feeble antagonist, accompanying each one with a question which elicited no reply, he saw that he was only losing valuable time, and he desisted from further violence. Then rushing to the door, he shouted for help, and as footsteps were heard, he cried out: “Anescape! Anescape! Quick! Give the alarm! Lee has got away! Oh, Lord! what shall I do?” The alarm spread. Half a dozen men rushed in and asked a dozen questions, while Hess, with shaking hands, lighted a lamp and explored the room; thinking it possible that the heutenant might not be gone, but might be con- cealed in the apartment watching for a chance to slip out. This hope being abandoned, he was obliged to admit that he must have himself let Lee out disguised as a clergyman, and that that was the secret of the duplicate minister whom they had all seen. . “But he can’t be far!” he said. ‘ We’ll soon have him! Come on, boys! It’s impossibe for him to get away, for he has not been gone a quarter of an hour.” | “Wait for the provo! wait for the provo!” said one. ‘“he’ll be here in a minute.” Some waited, and some followed the half-demented Hess, who ran out swearing that he would wait for nobody, but that he would capture both Lee and Luke or would kill them if the least resistance was made. The “provo” soon came in, breathless with haste, fol- lowed by a dozen subordinates, and, gathering as quickly as possible all the information he could, he .dispatched an officer and a guard of half a dozen men at once to Luke’s house, and sent others to notify the police, in order that the principal points of egress from the city might be watched. “Spread the alarm everywhere among the citizens,” he said to the men as they went out. “Cry it as you would cry a fire! I’ll have the bells all ringing in a few minutes, and there won’t be a man in Richmond in ten minutes but will know what it’s for.” CHAPTER XIX. THE ALARM. Alfred’s heart beat high with hope as, with his sable guide, he turned into another street, and quickened his pace away from the prison upon whose gloomy walls the cS Eomicboo Eon