se, they pecked and
chiseled away at the hard floor, which was eighteen inches thick of
stone cement and brick--concealing the rubbish in their handkerchiefs
and then throwing part of it into the stoves, and hiding the rest in
their beds. They soon dug a hole in the floor large enough to permit the
body of a man to pass. The iron bedsteads, which stood in each cell,
could be lifted up or let down at pleasure. Hines would prop his up,
each morning, sweep out his cell (in which the aperture had been cut)
and throw a carpet sack carelessly over the mouth of the shaft he had
sunk, and when the guard would come and look in, every thing would
appear so neat and innocent, that he would not examine further. One kick
given that hypocritical carpet bag (with its careless appearance) would
have disclosed the plot, at any time from the date of the inception of
the work to its close. After the air chamber was reached, a good many
others were taken into the secret, in order that the work might go
constantly on.

The method adopted, then, was for two or three to descend and go to
work, while the others kept watch; in an hour or two a fresh relief
would be put on, and the work would be kept up in this way throughout
the day, until the hour of locking up arrived, except at dinner time,
when every man who was absent from the table had to give a reason for
his absence. The work, conducted underground, was tedious and difficult,
but all labored with a will. The candles which had been purchased and
hoarded away, now did good service. Without them it would have been
almost impossible to finish the task. A code of signals was invented to
meet every possible contingency. By pounding a bar of wood upon the
stone floor, those above communicated to those underneath information of
every danger which threatened, and called on them to come forth, if
necessary. The walls of the air chamber were two or three feet thick,
and built of huge stones. Two or three of these stones were removed, and
a tunnel was run straight to the outer wall of the hall. Fortune
favored the workmen, at this juncture, and threw in their way an
adequate tool with which to accomplish this part of their work. Some one
had discovered lying in the yard through which we passed on our way to
breakfast, an old rusty spade with a broken handle. It was at once
determined that the said spade must be secured. Accordingly men were
detailed and instructed in their proper parts, and at the