After I had eaten my dinner (Lady Biddy having gone to her chamber to rest until it was time to set out again) I went to the door of the hut, and looking up saw Lewis de Pino in close conversation with a fellow who seemed to be the chief of the gang. When I saw how they lay their heads together, speaking low so that not a sound of their voices could I hear, my mind misgave me; but presently the rogue whom I called the chief goes up to the slaves and examines them, opening their eyes and pinching their flesh, as if to know if they were healthy or not; and then he takes Lewis de Pino to a box and shows him some pieces of metal, so that I concluded they were only trafficking their wares. Wherefore, being disgusted with the whole business, I turned my back on them, and flung myself on the net that hung in the hut, where I presently fell asleep.
How long I had lain there I know not (nor is it any great matter), but I was awoke rudely enough by four sturdy rascals laying hands on me at the same time that a fifth did cram a filthy clout in my mouth by way of gag. Seeing they meant to do me mischief, I put out all my strength to get free of their hands, and out of that accursed net on to the firm ground, where I might better defend myself; but all to no purpose, for the net gave no hold to my feet or vantage-point of any kind, so that I presently found myself bound hand and foot to my bed, with no more power to get out of it than if it had been my skin. And all this was done without so much as a word or any perceptible sound, for their feet were bare.
Seeing I was secure, they cut the cords that fastened the two ends of the net to the roof, and one fellow shouldering the end at my head and another that at my heels, they carried me out of the hut, and so jogged along pretty briskly till they reached the tower. Here the stairs being narrow and awkward, they flung me on the ground till they had tied a long cord to my feet, when four of them went to the head of the stairs, and pulling on to the cord with a will, they dragged me to the upper story like any bag of malt. From the landing they hauled me into a dim chamber, and there they left me to get out of my bonds as I might; going out by the door, which they barred and bolted close.
For a few moments I lay there stupefied by the rough usage I had been put to (for being dragged up heels foremost in the way I have described had thrown the blood into my head), but as my intelligence returned I saw that I had been clapped up in order that Lewis de Pino might carry off my Lady Biddy without opposition from me. No sooner did this idea come into my mind than I set to like a madman struggling to burst the cords that bound me; but this rash endeavor only drew the knots tighter, without breaking a strand of those hard ropes; yet was I made so frantic by the image of harm coming to my dear lady that I never paused to consider whether my strength might be better employed than in these vain efforts, nor heeded the wounds I inflicted on my own flesh, but still tore at the bonds with my bleeding wrists, as if my life depended on getting free; nay, I do believe that had a tiger been in that chamber, drawing near to tear me with his bloody fangs, I could have looked upon him with greater calm than I could support the image of my lady being borne away from me. So in a frenzy that grew with the conviction of my impotency rather than diminished, I labored as though I would tear my hands off to free my arms, until all my strength was spent, and I lay motionless, but for the throbbing of my chest, as I panted for breath. This brought me to a more reasonable state of mind, and as I got out of my faintness I began to wriggle my hands about without straining overmuch, and, thanks to the rope being made somewhat slippery with the blood from my wrists, I presently got one hand loose, and after that it was but a trifling matter (when I had freed my mouth from that beastly thing they had crammed in to gag me withal) to free the other, and after that my legs and ankles.
And now, seeing that I had done more to get my freedom by a ten minutes' patient endeavor than I had come, at in furiously struggling for the best part of an hour (and that without doing myself any mischief), I made up my mind to go about my business in a reasonable fashion henceforth. So getting on my legs I looked about me to find what part of my prison it was easiest to break through; and this gave me but little comfort, for no part seemed weaker than the rest, but all alike prodigious stout and strong.
The four walls were of solid stone, with no opening save the door, and six narrow slits, no bigger than rifts for shooting arrows, to admit light, and they higher up than I could get at with my hand, standing on my toes. The roof sprang from the walls about fifteen feet from the floor, and the cross-beams were boarded over. But casting my eye this way and that way, I saw a chink of light here and there, which led me to think these boards were not nailed down, but laid loosely down for the convenience of making a cock-loft there, and also that the roof must have some opening for the light thus to creep through.
Now I thought that if I could once get into the cock-loft the affair would be best part done; for if there were no dormer window, yet might I shift the shingles or the tiles of the roof, and so make an opening wide enough to creep through; and I counted that those cords which had bound me, tied together with the net-bed, which might be cut into three strips, and yet have strength to bear my weight, would serve to let me down some part of the way to the ground. What I should do after I got to the ground I did not trouble myself to consider; the main thing was to get out of the tower safely.
The more I looked at the chinks above, the more I liked my project; but how to make my way up into the cock-loft, as I call it, was the plague. I passed my hands carefully over every part of the walls within reach, hoping to find some hole or cranny to climb up by; but the stones were all smooth and flush, so that a cat could not have climbed up them. Nor was there anything in the shape of furniture that I might build up for a ladder. There was naught within these four walls but myself and the net I had been trussed up in. Taking up one of the cords from the ground, and weighing it in my hand, I asked myself if I could by any means turn it to my purpose; after thinking some little while, it came into my mind that if I made a big knot at one end, and thrust it through one of the rifts so that it would hitch on the outer side of the wall, I might then make a loop or two in the loose end, by which I could raise myself against the wall to the height of the said rift, and so reach up to the loose boards, if loose they were, above. The scheme was wild enough, but as I saw no better I began at once to put it into execution.
First of all I chose the longer of the cords, and made two loops in it to serve me as stirrups; then, taking a piece of the net, I rolled it into a hard ball, about as big as I might thrust through the rift; and, having bound this about with another cord, I fastened it securely to my stirrups, with length enough, as I judged, to allow the ball to pass through to the outer edge of the wall, where I hoped it would hitch.
When I had done this to my satisfaction, I began to cast about how I was to get it through the rift, which was a difficulty I had not foreseen.