This,
however, was not easily to be accomplished. When the officers went to
the window, they found that Jack and his companions had made little
progress. The bars fitted so closely into the holes that there was but
a small quantity of lead, and without a hammer and chisel it seemed
impossible to make the hole sufficiently large to move the bars so as to
allow Brown to exert his strength upon them. If the two centre
perpendicular bars could be got out, the lowest horizontal bar might be
sent up. This would afford ample room for the stoutest of the party to
get through.

"We've got out of a French prison before, sir, and we'll get out now,"
said Jack, working away.

"Yes, but we were small boys then, and you, Jack, and I, would find it a
hard matter to get through the same sized hole now that we could then,"
observed Rayner.

"That's just it, sir. If two small boys could get out of a French
prison, I am thinking that five well-nigh grown men can manage the job.
We'll do it, sir, never fear. If this stone was granite it might puzzle
us, but it's softer than that by a long way, and I have already cut out
some of it with my knife, though, to be sure, it does blunt it
considerably."

The progress Jack and his companions made was very small, and it was
evident that unless they could work faster they would be unable to
remove the bar before daylight. Rayner and Oliver searched round the
room for any pieces of iron which might serve the purpose of a chisel.
They examined the bedsteads--they were formed entirely of wood. There
was, of course, no fireplace, or a poker might have assisted them. They
had just returned to the window when their ears caught the sounds of a
few low notes from a violin, played almost directly beneath them.

"Why! I do believe that's the tune Le Duc was playing to us last
evening," exclaimed Jack.

All was again silent. Rayner and Oliver tried to look through the bars,
but could see nothing; all was still. Again the notes were heard. Jack
whistled a few bars of the same air. A voice from below, in a
suppressed tone asked in French, "Have you a thin line? Let it down."

"It is Le Duc. He has got something for us. Maybe just what we want,"
cried Jack.

"Oui, oui," he answered. "It will quickly be ready."

The ticking of one of the mattresses was quickly cut up and formed into
a line, which was lowered. Rayner, who held it, felt a gentle tug, and
as he hauled it up, what was