It was more and more like a dream until his eyes closed and he was asleep, and he slipped at once into a real dream of having passed all the locked doors, only to find himself standing in front of a stone wall twenty feet high.
Away over in one of the northern wards of the city of New York, Rod Nelson, as sound asleep as Jim, was also dreaming and he too had a stone wall to dream of. He was not trying to climb it himself, however, for he was only looking on while his bearded friend Billy walked up the side of that wall into the avenue, remarking, triumphantly:
“Ba-a-a-beh!”
When morning came, the usual round of activities began, everywhere. The boys in the House of Refuge dormitory dressed themselves in their rooms. Then, as the Superintendent’s assistant came and let them out, they all marched away to breakfast. Jim went with the rest, but he gave a keen, inquiring side-glance, at the lock of every door they passed. He thought he saw something worth remembering in the lock of the great, outer door of the dormitory itself.
“He only turned his key in it once,” he said to himself. “I’ve seen them turn it away around three times. What does that mean? I don’t know much about locks. They say these are the best and safest kind, though.”
V
JIM’S PLOT FOR LIBERTY
Women, like Mrs. Nelson, who go out to work for other people, have to get up early, but her first thought, and Rodney’s, was more about the door she was to go out by than even about breakfast.
“I’m going right off to find Pat,” said Rodney, as he helped her through the upper side-window.