ture, or else
when you have got away I may be suspected; so do not be surprised at
my seeming cold.'

"After that the woman only brought her child once a week or so to the
prison, and only gave me a nod as she passed through the yard. Upon
the third visit of the child it gave me a little packet containing two
or three small steel saws and a little bottle of oil. On the paper
which held them was written, 'For the bars. You shall have a rope next
time.' Sure enough next time the child had hidden in its frock a hank
of very thin cord, which I managed as I was playing with her to slip
unobserved into my breast. 'Mammy says more next time.' And next time
another hank came. There was a third, and a note, 'Twist the three
ropes together and they will be strong enough to bear you. On the
third night from this, saw through the bars and lower yourself into
court. There will be no moon. Go to the right-hand corner of the court
in the rear of the prison. Fasten a knife to one end of the cord and
throw it over the wall. I shall be waiting there with a friend.
Directly you feel the cord jerked climb up to the top of the wall. If
you can find something to fasten your end of the rope to you can slide
down it. If not, you must jump. There will be a boat ready to take you
away.'

"It all turned out well. It was a pitch dark night, raining and
blowing, and the sentries kept inside their boxes. I got up to the top
of the wall all right, and was able to fasten the rope on to the
spikes and slide down on the other side. The woman was there with a
man, whom she told me was her brother. They took me to a creek two
miles away and there put me on board a boat, and I was rowed out to a
smuggling craft which at once set sail, and two days later was landed
at Cherbourg. So that's how I came to learn English."

"Did you ever hear whether the woman who helped you was suspected?"

"I saw her brother two months afterward on one of the trips that the
craft he belonged to made. He said that of course there were a great
many inquiries made, and his sister had been questioned closely. She
swore that she had hardly spoken to me for the last two months and
that she had given me nothing; which in a way was true enough, for she
had not handed them to me herself. The prisoners bore her out about
her not coming near me, for it had been noticed that she was not as
friendly as she had been. Some had thought her ungrateful, while
others had fancied that she wa