odge the staple a hundredth part of an inch from its
holding-place.

The morning wore slowly on, mid-day came and went, the afternoon dragged
its dismal length, and still there was no change in our position.
Towards sundown the same gigantic negro entered the room again, bringing
us our evening meal. When he left we were locked up for the night, with
only the contemplation of our woes, and the companionship of the
multitudes of mice that scampered about the floor, to enliven us.

The events of the next seven days are hardly worth chronicling, unless
it is to state that every morning at daylight the same cock crew and the
same dog barked, while at six o'clock the same cripple invariably made
his way down the street behind me. At eight o'clock almost to the
minute, breakfast was served to us, and, just as punctually, the evening
meal made its appearance as the sun was declining behind the opposite
house-top. Not again did we see any sign of Mr. Prendergast, and though
times out of number I tugged at my chain I was never a whit nearer
loosening it than I had been on the first occasion. One after another
plans of escape were proposed, discussed, and invariably rejected as
impracticable. So another week passed and another, until we had been
imprisoned in that loathsome place not less than twenty days. By the end
of that time, as may be supposed, we were as desperate as men could well
be. I must, however, admit that anything like the patience and pluck of
my companion under such circumstances I had never in my life met with
before.

One fact had repeatedly struck me as significant, and that was the
circumstance that every morning between six and half-past, as already
narrated, the same cripple went down the street; and in connexion with
this, within the last few days of the time, a curious coincidence had
revealed itself to me. From the tapping of his crutches on the stones I
discovered that while one was shod with iron, the other was not. Now
where and when had I noticed that peculiarity in a cripple before? That
I had observed it somewhere I felt certain. For nearly half the day I
turned this over and over in my mind, and then, in the middle of our
evening meal, enlightenment came to me. I remembered the man whose
piteous tale had so much affected Beckenham on the day of our arrival,
and the sound his crutches made upon the pavement as he left us. If my
surmise proved correct, and we could only manage to communicate with