"It is the first time I ever heard of a prison door having bolts on the inside."
"They are not bolts, as you will see directly."
It took some minutes to get all the wedges out. Macgregor then entered and shook Angus warmly by the hand, while Azim threw himself on his knees, and seizing his master's hand kissed it again and again, tears of joy streaming down his cheeks.
"Where in the world did you get these wedges?" Macgregor asked.
"I cut them out of this plank. It took me all day yesterday to make them and this mallet. How the plank came here I don't know, but it certainly saved my life."
"That and your wits, Campbell. It was a capital idea, first-rate. I see there is blood on the staircase."
"The plank came in useful again. I used it as a battering-ram on the fellow who was chopping, and as I caught him full in the face, the blood is accounted for. As you see by the opposite wall, they fired a few shots through the hole afterwards, but of course I took good care to be out of the line of fire."
"Well, come along. Sir Alexander has been asking about you, but could get no information, and it might have been some time before you were set free had it not been for your boy."
On going down into the body of the citadel, Angus was most warmly greeted by Sir Alexander Burnes and the other officers who knew him, for all supposed that he had been murdered. He explained to his chief why his life had been spared.
"You had a narrow escape indeed," the latter said, "for I have no doubt whatever that the Afghan would have carried out his threat had we attacked in a regular way. It is quite in accordance with their barbarous customs. But I certainly wonder that they did not kill you when we entered the fortress."