Strange that now I felt like a greyhound in the leash, longing to be anywhere but where I was.
Besides, I had more solid grounds for wakefulness.

However well to-day I had given my pursuers the slip, I guessed I had not heard the last of Captain Merriman and his merry men.

They would find me out; and I might yet become, as Peter had said, a lodger in Newgate, and, worse than that, a cause of trouble and distress to good Master Walgrave and his lady.
For, however poorly I esteemed my master, I could ill afford to bring harm on his family.

For my mistress was ever my champion and my friend, and her children I was wont to love as my own brothers and sisters.
So I spent half the night kicking in my bed--of which kicks Master Peter received his full share--and rose very early, resolved to try what hard work could do to cure my unrest.
No one was stirring that I could hear, and I went down the stairs silently and took up my labour at the case.

My stick lay on the floor, where I had dropped it the morning before, and, alack! the squabbled type lay there too, a sight to make a man sad.