“I suppose you wonder how I came here. Look!”
I looked, and saw an aperture in the wall about two feet square.
“I came through that,” he said, laughing softly at my evident astonishment. “My cell is on the other side. Now, I am going to escape from this jail, and I want you to go with me.”
I know now that his reason was to prevent my giving an alarm; but I thought then that it was because he took pity on me.
And I joyfully accepted his offer,
although I couldn’t imagine how he was to manage it, and I made a remark to that effect.
“Easy enough,” he said. “You have only a lock on your door, while there’s a dozen bolts on mine. That’s why I dug through, expecting to find the cell empty. However, it is all right. Take off your shoes.”
I did so, and then my companion put out the lights, having first opened the door with what looked like a piece of wire.
Then he whispered to me to keep hold of his sleeve, step cautiously and not let my shoes fall, and then we moved out into the corridor, now black as Egypt.
My guide also seemed to be in his stocking feet; but where his shoes were I couldn’t imagine.