"But I shall live in fear and trembling if I leave you without your promise to refrain from daring exploits. Just consider, my dear boy; you are in the fourth story of this warehouse, and the guard-room is below you. You have really no chance at all of success, and a fall or a shot may kill or disable you for life."
"I do not say that I shall try to escape, uncle."
"And you do not say that you will not try to escape."
For half an hour longer Colonel Passford endeavored to induce his nephew to give the desired promise; but he remained obstinate to the end; and his uncle was compelled to leave him, to enter upon the fear and trembling in which he was to live while his enterprising nephew remained a prisoner. But he promised to call upon him every day, and to write to his wife and daughter to return at once.
"I think I shall not wait for him to call," said Christy to Flint, as soon as he had gone.
"Do you expect to get out of this place, Mr. Passford?" asked the master's mate, with lively interest.
"This very night!" replied Christy, in an energetic whisper, as he put his finger on his lips to indicate that nothing more was to be said on the subject.
The second lieutenant of the Bellevite had not been confined in the warehouse three days without considering his chances of escape, and the means of accomplishing such a purpose. He had looked the building over with the greatest care. The room the prisoners occupied was next to the roof. The rear windows opened upon a narrow alley, and he had ascertained by looking out at them that the warehouse was one of a long block. He had been in Mobile a great deal while the family were visiting at Glenfield, and he had been careful to notice the location when he was conducted to it with the others.
At the end of the loft next to the main street were thirty or forty other prisoners, with whom Christy and Flint had been on good terms, though they belonged to the army, and seemed to be inclined to keep by themselves. They had been exhausted by hard service, and they had nothing to do but eat and sleep, though the former occupation did not occupy any great amount of their spare time. But as soon as it was fairly dark, they stretched themselves on their beds of vines and weeds, and most of them were soon asleep.
The evening that followed the day on which Colonel Passford visited his nephew was dark, foggy, rainy, and as gloomy as even a blockade runner might ask. Christy seated himself under one of the rear windows of the loft, which appeared to have been intended only for storage, and was only from seven to eight feet between studs. Flint placed himself at the side of his companion, as he was requested to do.