out suspiciously.

"Don't you notice," he whispered, "that we can hear the wind much
plainer here than in the passage? I believe I can feel a current of
fresh air, too. I wonder if he's been trying to cut his way through to
the air-hole. It's only a few feet up."

He flashed his light upon the wall near where Engleton was lying. Then
he turned significantly to Forrest.

"See," he said, "he has cut steps in the wall and tried to make an
opening above. He must have guessed where the ventilating pipe was. I
wonder what he did it with."

They crossed the room. The man on the couch opened his eyes and looked
at them dully.

"So you've been improving the shining hour, eh?" Forrest remarked,
pointing to the rough steps. "We shall have to find what you did it
with. Hidden under the mattress, I suppose."

He stooped down, and Engleton flew at his throat with all the fury of a
wild cat. Forrest was taken aback for a moment, but the effort was only
a brief one. Engleton's strength seemed to pass away even before he had
concluded his attack. He sank back and collapsed upon the floor at a
touch.

"You brutes!" he muttered.

Cecil lifted the mattress. There was a large flat stone, sharp-edged
and coated with mud, lying underneath.

"I thought so," he whispered. "Jove, he's gone a long way with it,
too!" he muttered, looking upward. "Another foot or so and he would
have been outside. I wonder the place didn't collapse."

Engleton dragged himself a little way back. He remained upon the floor,
but there was support for his back now against the wall.

"Well," he said, "what is it this evening?"

"The end," Forrest answered shortly.

Engleton did not flinch. Of the three men, although his physical
condition was the worst, he seemed the most at his ease.

"The end," he remarked. "Well, I don't believe it. I don't believe you
have either of you the pluck to go through life with the fear of the
rope round your neck every minute. But if I am indeed a condemned man.
I ought to have my privileges. Give me a cigarette, one of you, for
God's sake."

Forrest took out his gold case and threw him a couple of cigarettes.
Then he struck a match and passed it over.

"Smoke, by all means," he said. "Listen! In five minutes we are going
to throw you from the seaward end of this place, down into the cove or
creek, or whatever they call it. It is high tide, and the sea there is
twenty feet deep. As for swimming, you evidently haven't t