"I can get help," Frank replied, as he thought of his three chums. Then, with a hearty hand clasp, the man in room twenty-eight bade the boy go.
Frank resumed his walk up and down the corridors. But now he was wide awake, for he was planning to escape. Up and down he walked, arranging the details in his mind. At first it had seemed simple, but now, as he thought it over, unexpected difficulties arose.
"But I must do it!" he exclaimed to himself. "To think I have really found him, and that he is not insane at all. It's all part of a terrible plot. But I will solve the secret, and then—"
His thoughts were interrupted by a commotion in room twenty-eight; the apartment he had just left.
"They're killing me! They're killing me!" cried a voice in agony. "Don't let them! Take the cannibals away! I have come here to trade with the natives peaceably! Don't let them kill me!"
Sick at heart, and with nameless dread in his bosom, Frank ran to the bell and gave the signal for help.
CHAPTER XXIV
FRANK LOSES HOPE
Once more came the attendants, running up the stairs. Frank pointed to the room he had just left. His face was pale and drawn.
"You're not used to it yet," said the big guard, who had spoken to him before, as he passed the boy. "You'll not mind it in a week."
Then he, and the others, entered the apartment whence the frightened cries were still coming. Frank could not bear to stay where he could hear them. He went to the corridor below. In a little while the attendants came down.