red for the adventure was a long rope, a sharp file, and a
dark night.

The chief difficulty that occurred to Vincent arose from the fact that
there were some twenty other prisoners in the same ward. He could hardly
file through the bars of the window unnoticed by them, and they would
naturally wish to share in his flight; but where one person might
succeed in evading the vigilance of the guard, it was unlikely in the
extreme that twenty would do so, and the alarm once given all would be
recaptured. He was spared the trouble of making up his mind as to his
plans, for by the time he had finished his letter the hour that the
hucksters were allowed to sell their goods was passed, and the gates
were shut and all was quiet.

After some thought he came to the conclusion that the only plan would be
to conceal himself somewhere in the prison just before the hour at which
they were locked up in their wards. The alarm would be given, for the
list of names was called over before lock-up, and a search would of
course be made. Still, if he could find a good place for concealment, it
might succeed, since the search after dark would not be so close and
minute as that which would be made next morning. The only disadvantage
would be that the sentries would be specially on the alert, as, unless
the fugitive had succeeded in some way in passing out of the gates in
disguise, he must still be within the walls, and might attempt to scale
them through the night. This certainty largely increased the danger, and
Vincent went to bed that night without finally determining what had
better be done.

The next morning, while walking in the grounds, he determined the place
he would choose for his concealment if he adopted the plan he had
thought of the evening before. The lower rooms upon one side of the
building were inhabited by the governor and officers of the prison, and
if he were to spring through an open window unnoticed just as it became
dusk, and hide himself in a cupboard or under a bed there, he would be
safe for a time, as, however close the search might be in other parts of
the building, it would be scarcely suspected, at any rate on the first
alarm, that he had concealed himself in the officers' quarters. There
would, of course, be the chance of his being detected as he got out of
the window again at night, but this would not be a great risk. It was
the vigilance of the sentries that he most feared, and the possibility
that, as soon a