Finding that nothing was to be made out of the prisoners,
the magistrate ordered them to be taken back to jail.
Two days later when the jailer brought in breakfast
to their cell he dropped on the table by the side
of the loaf a tiny ball of paper, and then without
a word went out and locked the back door. Malcolm
put his finger to his lips as Ronald was about to
utter an exclamation of joy.
“One’s appetite is not as good here as
it was when we were tramping the hills, Ronald; but
one looks forward to one’s meals; they form a
break in the time.”
So saying, he took up one of the lumps of bread and
began to ear, securing at the same time the pellet
of paper. “We can’t be too careful,”
he said in a whisper. “It is quite possible
that they may be able to overhear us.”
“I don’t see how,” Ronald replied
in the same tone; “I see no crack or crevice
through which sound could pass.”
“You may not see one,” Malcolm said, “but
it may exist for all that. One of the boards
of the ceiling may be as thin as paper, and anyone
listening through could hear every word we say when
we speak in our natural voices. The magistrates
evidently believe that they have made a valuable capture,
and would give anything to prove that their suspicions
are correct. Now, I will go and stand at that
grated opening and look at this paper, if they are
watching us they will see nothing then.”
The little piece of paper when unfolded contained
but a few words: “Keep up your courage.
You have friends without working for you. Destroy
this.”
Malcolm at once again rolled up the pellet, put it
into his mouth and swallowed it, and then whispered
to Ronald what he had just read.
“I thought,” he whispered, “that
we should soon get a message of some sort. The
news of our arrest will have set the hearts of a score
of people quaking, and they would do anything now
to get us out from this prison. They have already,
you see, succeeded in bribing our warder.”
At his evening visit the warder passed into Ronald’s
hand a small parcel, and then, as before, went out
without speaking.
“I am confirmed in the belief that we can be
overheard,” Malcolm said. “Had the
man not been afraid of listeners he would have spoken
to us. Now let us see what he has brought us
this time.”
The parcel contained a small file, a saw made of watch
spring, and a tiny phial of oil.
“So far so good,” Malcolm said quietly.
“Our way through these bars is clear enough
now. But that is only the beginning of our difficulties.
This window looks into the prison yard, and there is
a drop of some forty feet to begin with. However,
I have no doubt our friends will send us the means
of overcoming these difficulties in due course.
All we have to concern ourselves about now is the
sawing through of these bars.”
