“Wait one moment,” said Roger. “Do you think you know that translation by heart thoroughly; for I have committed it to memory, and if you have done the same we will destroy it, as it is much too dangerous a document to keep about us, now that we have incurred the suspicion of that fiend, Alvarez.”
“Yes,” answered Harry, “I know it perfectly;” and he repeated it to his friend. The paper was then at once torn up into the most minute particles. They were on the point of throwing them out of the window, but refrained, not so much because of the danger that they might be pieced together again, as that they might attract the attention of anybody who chanced to be about at the time. After a while, however, they found a deep crack between the cell wall and the floor, partly concealed by slime and dirt; and into this crack they pushed the remnants of the cryptogram, and then hid the small aperture again by covering it with more dirt scraped from the cell floor. Thus hidden it was exceedingly unlikely that anybody would ever find the pieces unless the exact spot was pointed out to him.
The two lads then turned with much lightened hearts to their meal. It was placed upon the stone table, and they began to share it between them. There was a bunch of bananas this time, a delicacy they had received but once before. Roger took them up to count and divide the fruit, when he exclaimed: “Why, whatever is this?”
“What?” asked Harry.
“Look at this,” rejoined Roger, holding something in his fingers. It was a piece of paper which had been skilfully hidden in the fruit, and on it a few lines of writing were to be seen.
Chapter Nineteen.
Help from an unexpected Quarter—Plans made for Escape.
With wildly beating hearts, and with no further thoughts for their food, which was tumbled unceremoniously on to the floor, the lads tore open the folded paper, and eagerly scanned its contents. It ran as follows:—