“Now what duties ...” Addison began then stammered, “Try not to let it happen again.” He moved past Mills and along the hall.
Red doubled up with glee. “Never again,” he said as he rolled over and shook his bunk with silent laughter.
Tim smiled to himself. “They say if you stay in jail too long you go back to your childhood ways. We’ll have to get you out of here.”
When Addison had left the floor Tim and Red went to the end of the corridor away from the common room and stood by a window that overlooked the yard. The light from a flickering lamp outside painted swift black ghosts against the wall.
Tim told Red about the window in the Navy kitchen and the condition of the fence at the back of the woodshed. “We can enter the kitchen when we’re in the yard and crawl through the window while Devil and Bell kick up a noise. Then we’ll wait in the woodshed till after dark.”
“They’ll discover our absence when they check the beds, and the hounds will be after us in no time at all.”
“We might leave dummies in our beds.”
Red looked through the bars at the dark blue sky. “If Senn’s not on duty, dummies might work.”
“Senn’s off duty all day Thursday. Let’s aim for Thursday afternoon.”
“That soon?”