to escape; and while waiting he put all his energies into
his work, so that he might have as much money as possible when the time
came for him to make his attempt. It was quite the usual thing now for
the guard--whose name, Jim had ascertained, was Carbajal--to lie down
behind his rock, and either sleep or smoke while his charge laboured in
the tunnel; and one day Jim crawled over to the rock where he lay and
took a good look at the fellow. He was sitting with his back against
the rock, fast asleep; his rifle was lying about three feet away from
him, and his peaked cap was tilted over his eyes. If he would only go
to sleep like that in the morning, thought Jim, all would be well; for
the escape would have to be made very early in order that the fugitive
might get a good long start before his absence was discovered when the
roll was called at nightfall.

Douglas had now quite a nice little stock of money, and he soon made up
his mind what to do. One evening, before going to the sleeping
barracks, he bought a bottle of _aguardiente_, and from an _Indio_ with
whom he had made friends he procured a large quantity of _coca_ leaves,
which he put into the bottle of spirit to soak overnight, knowing that
by the morning the strong liquor would have absorbed all the cocaine out
of the leaves.

The next morning he extracted all the leaves and recorked the bottle,
which he carefully secreted under his coat, for he had determined to
make his escape that very day. Then he went up to the tunnel, followed
by the guard, who lay down behind his usual rock directly they arrived
at the works. Jim considered for a few seconds whether he should offer
the man the bottle at once or later, and finally determined in favour of
the latter, in order to avoid arousing his guard's suspicions, and to
give him an opportunity to get thoroughly thirsty in the hot sun. Jim
then went into the tunnel and walked down to its far end, not to work,
however, for he determined to save himself up as much as possible, in
view of future contingencies.

He therefore sat down, with his back against one of the tunnel walls,
but would not close his eyes lest he should inadvertently drop off to
sleep. He had been staring abstractedly at the opposite wall for some
minutes, when it dawned upon him that one of the blocks of stone of
which it was composed had a very curiously symmetrical appearance, and
the longer he gazed at it the more convinced did he become tha