Tim’s heart thumped as thoughts of escape whirled through his mind. Forgetting himself, he spoke with excitement, “One of us could loosen a board while we were fetching wood. A couple of blows with a decent sized log....”
Bell turned around again, this time with his forefinger pressed against his mouth. Then he sauntered to the center of the room. “They’ll hear you, if you aren’t careful.”
A guard put his head in the door. “The corporal says, finish your chores,” he drawled. “He wants to take you back inside.”
Tim grinned foolishly at the guard, stood up and went around to the Army kitchen. His hands shook as he lit the lantern and scraped the stove.
He signaled a sentry who was lighting the lamp that hung in a bracket on the jailhouse wall. “Finished for today,” he said.
Addison’s room was on the first floor at the back of the jail, and when the guard knocked the corporal’s keys began to rattle. He opened the door. “’Bout time,” he said, holding his lantern so it would light Tim’s face.
As they moved along the first-floor corridor Addison mumbled, “I’m going up too.”
It was the custom of Senn or the guard on duty to check the prisoners’ beds after the men came up from their mess. Senn had decreed that they stay on their beds until he’d finished counting them in.
Tim went straight to his cell and climbed to his bunk.
Red lay on the top bunk, across from Tim. He stirred against the dingy wall. “Sure, that was a capital mush you cooked tonight.”