“If you will pass it through the bars,” the man said, “then I will put it on and hurry to the Chicuna Mine, so as to be there before the whistle blows. It will blow for dinner and siesta in a few minutes now.”
Sard knew that the siesta hour must be very near and that the moment was propitious for the finding of a fellow-countryman. He had only been a few minutes in prison, but already the thought of being locked up through the siesta when he might be outside made him anxious for the engineer to be there.
“Give to the engineer this card,” he said, “and urge him hither at once; any engineer who speaks my tongue.”
“There is a penalty,” the man said, “if we are caught outside the gates in uniform.”
“What penalty?”
“That of the thumbs.”
“Still, in this coat,” Sard said, “you could surely pass out unobserved?”
“They will not catch me,” the man said; “and if they do (though they will not), it will be well worth while, since to help the afflicted can never be a sin. This will I always maintain.”
“Surely rightly,” Sard said, stripping off the old and oily jacket. “But here is the disguise for you; this coat. You had better take the cap as well.”
Sard could just make out that some other soldiers were in the yard not very far away.