Rodney Shaw swore at him, and said a bargain was a bargain, but he eventually gave him twenty pounds over the sum agreed upon.
When they were gone he went again to Sal. He meant to try and coax her into a good humour. He succeeded ill, and, losing his temper, said,—
'Remember I am your master now, and you will have to obey me. Think it over during the night, and make up your mind to be contented.'
With that he left her, and she looked round for some means of escape. The one window was heavily barred, and the door was fastened on the outside.
Rodney Shaw had taken every precaution, so he thought, to secure her; but he did not anticipate she would try to attempt what seemed impossible, and escape. He did not know Sal. She meant to try every means in her power to get out of that room.
The house was, as usual, built on thick wooden piles and was some height from the ground. As Sal walked round and round she heard a board creak, almost in the same spot, each time she passed over it. She knelt on the floor and felt closely round the skirting. To her joy she discovered the white ants had been busily at work on one of the piles and that they had penetrated the skirting board of the room. She tapped it, and the sound told her it was hollow inside, crumbling away. So great was her joy that she had much difficulty in restraining herself from testing her plan at once.
She knew, however, it would be safer to wait until it was dark and all was still. The time passed slowly, but at last she determined to risk it.
She pressed her hand heavily on the board, and, as she expected, it gave way and crumbled to pieces. It was an easy matter for such a powerful woman to rip the rotten portion away, but a more difficult task awaited her when she attempted to pull up the flooring boards, and she had to be very careful not to make much noise. Her hands were cut and bleeding, but she heeded it not. She pulled and tugged with all her strength, and at last one board gave way, but the space made was not wide enough for her to squeeze through. The second board did not take so long to raise, and this gave her a sufficient opening.
She slipped through and found herself underneath the house, free, if she could only manage to get away unobserved or without rousing any of the dogs.
She crawled along the ground, hardly daring to breathe, until she reached the fence, which she quickly climbed.