LIFE AND LETTERS OF JOSEPH HARDY NEESIMA

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ESCAPE FROM HAKODATE. 37 shoes attracted the attention of the animal ; so I took them off on the spot, in order to detect how far or in what direction that barking creature might be. When I told my friend where I had left my shoes, he rushed out in his bare feet and brought them back to me. Then we went down together to a wharf where he had ready a small boat. While we were standing on the wharf we heard somebody coming, so I hurried to the boat and laid flat down on the bottom, to make an ap­pearance that I was one of the bundles that contained a few articles of my own. It proved to be a watch­man, and the chance was he would catch both of us. But, providentially, he was a coward, and dared not approach close enough to detect us. He only saw my friend on the wharf about to untie the boat, and asked him in a trembling voice, ' Who is here ? ' ' It is I,' replied my friend cahnly, and said further that he had necessary business with the captain of an American vessel which could not be delayed until to­morrow. My friend was well known to the watchman, who recognized. him at once, and his brief explana­tion, spoken in such a quiet and confidential manner, was quite enough to be a passport to let him off from the wha1·f even in a midnight hour. As we rowed away we saw the thousands of lights on the shore. The people were celebrating a festival of one of their heathen gods. As the American vessel was lying quite far from the shore, it required in us considerable effort to reach it. The captain was waiting for us, and we were taken on board the Berlin without the least delay. Giving me a warm grip of hand, my friend bade me farewell and rowed to the shore alone, and I was taken to a store-room of the cabin and locked up. I went to sleep at once, and had a splen-

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