"Are the chains locked?"
"Yes. And she must have the key. But we could file the links if only we had files. If only each of us had a file, we could get free. Perhaps the man upstairs has a key, but I hardly think so."
"Did you write on that pretty wall upstairs, the whitewashed wall?"
"I did; I think we all did. One man wrote a sonnet to the woman, verses in her honor, telling about her beautiful eyes. He raved about that poem for hours while he was dying. Did you ever see it on the wall?"
"I did not see it. The old people whitewash the walls before each new master comes."
"I thought so."
"Are you sure you would know what to do, George, if she sang to you and you were loose?"
"Yes, we would know."
So I left him, promising an end to the matter as soon as I could arrange it.