“Well, it doesn’t matter so much after all,” said Raymond, “for I’m sure we can get out through the window.”
“Yes,” suggested Sidney, “if that fellow isn’t waiting outside to receive us. He may know the window bars are rotten and thinks we’ll try that way.”
“We’ll give him a run for his money, anyway. If I only had that revolver I’d give him something besides a run. I hate to start up through the mountains without any gun, Sid. Did you notice if that man had one?”
“Yes, he had a long revolver in his belt, I should think a .38.”
“I almost wish he’d be waiting outside, then, and I’d make a try for it. Those boneheads didn’t take our cartridges, so all we lack is a gun.”
The boys were very much amused by the inefficient search the policemen had conducted. Their knapsacks hung with the blanket rolls from the window bars in plain view, but had not been examined at all. The sacks contained, besides a few small articles of clothing and a little food, all of Raymond’s ammunition. If they could only obtain a gun of the same caliber, they would still be well fortified. Sidney admonished his brother, however, to take no rash chances, at any time, in an attempt to procure arms.
The black bread which the policeman had brought to them was not at all inviting in its appearance,—indeed it was fairly repulsive,—but they decided to keep it, for if they were to succeed in escaping from the town in the night, they would, of course, have no chance to buy food. So the bread was stowed away in the knapsacks with the small supply already there.
The boys, while it was still light, carefully inspected the window bars so that they would know just what to do in the dark. They did not place their hands on them, for they did not wish anybody who might be watching outside to observe that the bars were being examined. They found that the rains which had rusted the bars had, of course, run downward, so that the irons, while nearly rusted through at the lower ends, were still very solid at the top. They believed that they would be able to break the bars loose at the bottom, and then to bend them up, in that way making an opening of sufficient size to admit their bodies.
After their plan of action was arranged, the boys waited, with as much patience as possible, for the closing-down of night. They could not plan beyond climbing out of the window, for their further action would depend on whether there were any persons abroad in the streets. They hoped that the sky would be clear, so that they would be able to locate the mountains, and not make a mistake in direction.
Finally it became dark, and very dark it was, indeed, inside the jail. But they waited what seemed to them a long time after that, to make it probable that all stragglers would have returned home. When they were sure that night was well advanced, they began operations on the window bars, tentatively at first, to see what resistance they would be obliged to overcome.