“It’s foolhardy,” said the head-keeper. “If the wind drives back, he’ll be lost, sure. Grimes, better stay here.”
“I said I’ll go, and I will,” answered Grimes, the assistant. He had been in charge of Ward 8, and felt he must do what he could for the unfortunates who were locked up.
It took Gilbert but a few seconds to reach the second floor of the prison. The door at the top of the outside staircase was open, and he plunged into the corridor beyond. Here the smoke was still thick, and he had to pause to locate his surroundings.
“To the left!” shouted Grimes. “The prisoners are in the last two rooms. Better bend down—the smoke won’t affect you so much.”
To find his way through the narrow corridor was no easy matter, and Gilbert was soon suffering for the want of pure air. He, however, gained the first of the two rooms mentioned in safety; and on his heels came Grimes.
“Help! help! Let us out!” came in the voices of two men, a Russian and a German; and the door was quickly unlocked. The men leaped out like wild beasts, hurling Grimes flat in their eagerness to escape.
“Now the other door!” said Gilbert, in a hoarse whisper, so thick was the smoke in his throat; but Grimes was too dazed to answer, and, rising, the keeper ran after the pair who had just been liberated.
Gilbert was going after him, when his foot touched something and sent it spinning against a side wall. It was a prison key, the one Grimes had dropped. Hurriedly he picked it up, and ran for the last room at the end of the corrider.
Here were three men fighting madly to pull down the iron barrier with their bare hands, while a fourth was at the window bars. “Let us out!” cried one, in broken English. “Do not let us roast to death!”
“I will open the door,” answered Gilbert. “Stand back!” And he thrust the key into the lock. It did not fit very well, and all the time he was trying to turn it the men continued to shriek and dance around like maniacs. At last the bolt slipped back; and out came the men pell-mell, the fellow from the window following the three others.