There's the tide nicely with you all the way,
and I am always a liberal enough paymaster." "What will you give?" said one with a voice like a cracked trumpet with
a bad cold. "Why, name your price, and I shall not say no to it." "What shall we take the gemman for, Bill?" said this man to another, who
was smoking a short pipe. "A rum 'un," was the reply of Bill. "Don't be a _hass_. I didn't go for to ask you what sort of _indiwiddle_
he was, but what we'd take him to Gravesend for." "Oh, that's the caper, is it?" "Yes it is, idiot." "Well--fifteen bob and a tanner." "Will that do, sir?" said the other to Todd, who thought that it would
look bad to acquiesce too readily in the amount, so he said--

"I will give the fifteen shillings." "Very good. We won't go to loggerheads about the tanner; so come along,
sir, and we'll soon get you to Gravesend, with this tide a-running all
the way there, as comfortably as it can, all of a purpose." Todd was well enough pleased to find that these two men owned the
longest and strongest-looking wherry that was at the landing-place. He
ensconced himself snugly enough in the stern of the boat and they put
aside their pipes, and soon pushed off into the middle of the stream. "Once more," thought Todd, "once more I am on the road to escape; and
all may yet be well." The two men now set to work with the oars in earnest. They felt, that as
they were paid by the job, the best way was to get it over as quickly as
possible; and, aided by the tide, it was perfectly astonishing what
progress they made down the river. Todd every now and then cast a long and anxious glance behind him; and
presently he saw a boat shooting along, by the aid of six rowers, at
great speed, and evidently turning into the little landing-place from
where he had just come. His eyesight was either sharpened by the morning
light, or fancy deceived him, for he thought he saw the boy, Bill White,
seated in the stern of the boat. Todd was in an agony. He knew not whether to attract the attention of
the two watermen to the large boat with all its rowers, so that he might
get an opinion from them concerning it or not; and then again, he
thought that at the moment, there would be a good chance of working upon
the cupidity of the men, if any real danger should befall him of
capture. "I say, Bill," said one. "Well, say it." "There's one of the police officer's gone into the Old Stairs. There's
something afloat this here morning." "Ah! They are always at some manoeuvre or another. Pull away. It ain't
no business of our'n." Todd could almost have hugged the man for the sentiment he uttered; and
how he longed to echo those two words, "pull away;" but he was afraid to
do so, lest, by any seemingly undue anxiety just then for speed upon his
part, he should provoke the idea that the police-boat was as interesting
to him as it really was. Poor, wretched, guilty Todd surely suffered a hundred times the pangs of
death during his progress down the river; and now he sat in the stern of
the boat, looking as pale as death itself. "You don't seem very well," said one of the men. "Oh, yes--yes, I am quite well, I thank you." "Well, I'm glad to hear it; for you look just as if you had been buried
a month, and then dug up again." "Ha! ha!" laughed Todd,--what a hideous attempt at a laugh it
was!--"that is very good." "Oh, lor! do you laugh that way when you are at home? 'cos if you do, I
should expect the roof to tumble in with fright, I should." "How funny you are," said Todd. "Pull away." He did venture to say, "pull away!" and the men did pull with right
good-will, so that the landing-place, and the long police-boat that was
at it, looked just like two specks by the river-side; and, indeed it
would have been a long pull and a strong one to catch Todd's wherry. The murderer breathed a little more freely. "How far have we got to go now?" he said. "Oh, a matter of nine miles yet." "And how long will it take you?" "About one hour and a quarter, with the tide running at such a pace as
it is. There's some wind, too, and what there is, is all with us, so we
cut along favourably. What are they doing away yonder, Bill?" "Where?" said Bill. "Right in our wake, there. Oh, they are getting up a sail. I'll be
hanged if they ain't, and pulling away besides! Why, what a hurry they
must be in, to be sure, to get down the river. I never knew them do that
before." Todd looked along the surface of the water, and he saw the police-boat
coming along at such a rate, that the spray was tossed up in the air
before her prow in millions of white particles. A puff of smoke came from her side, and a slight sharp report rung upon
the morning air. A musket or a pistol had been discharged on board of
her. "What's the meaning of that, Bill?" "I can tell you," said Todd, sharply, before Bill had done moving his
head from side to side, which was a habit of his preparatory to replying
to any very intricate question. "I can tell you easily." [Illustration: The Police-Galley Chasing Todd To Gravesend.] "What is it then?" "You pull away, and I'll tell you. You see that boat with the sail and
the six rowers there?" "Yes, yes!" "And you heard them fire a gun?" "To be sure." "Well, pull away. It's enough to make a cat laugh; but it was Mr.
Anthony Strong that fired that gun." "How very droll? But what did he do it for?" "Well, pull away, and I'll tell you. You must know that Mr. Anthony
Strong, who is in command of that police-boat, is my brother-in-law, and
he laid a wager with me, that he would start from the pier at Cheyne
Walk, Chelsea, at daybreak this morning, and get to Gravesend before me,
if I started from Blackfriars, and did the best I possibly could to get
on that money and men could do for me. I allowed that he was to take all
his six rowers with him, and hoist his sail if he liked, and I was to
take no more than two watermen at a time. When he saw me, he was to fire
a gun, you see; and the wager is for twenty pounds and a dinner. I
should like to win it, and so, if you can fairly beat him, with the
start you have, which is above a mile--"

"It's above two," said Bill, "Water's deceiving." "Well, I'm glad to hear it; and I was going to say, I would stand five
guineas!" "You will, old fellow?" "I will; and to convince you of it, here they are, and I will place them
in your hands at once; so now, I do hope that you will pull away like
devils!" "Won't we! If Mr. Anthony Strong, with all his sail and his six hands,
catches us on this side of Gravesend, I'll give him leave to skin me and
eat me at the dinner that he would win. No, no! if we don't know the
currents, and the shortcuts of the river a little bit better than ever a
captain of police-boat that ever lived, or that ever will live, why you
may set me down for a frog or a Frenchman, which, I take it, are much of
a muchness." "They is," said the other. Todd shouted with delight, and it was real now the wild laughter that
shook his frame, for he began to think he was safe.