kly. When,
after struggling vainly against his bonds, he had exhausted his strength
and had at last lain back panting for breath, he had begun to think,--to
try in some way to devise a plan that would offer hope of escape. But
there seemed to be no possible loophole, no stratagem or maneuver by
means of which he could win release. Inaction was galling, and, after
lying still for a long time, Teeny-bits again began to struggle and
twist and squirm. These bonds with which his arms and hands and feet and
legs were fastened did not give way under his most violent efforts and,
as previously, he exhausted himself before he had accomplished anything.

For hours Teeny-bits alternated these periods of struggling and resting.
Twice he was aware that some one came into the room and went
out,--evidently after watching him for a few moments. How much time had
passed since his captors had pounced upon him on the hill road to
Hamilton he had no means of knowing, but it seemed likely that more than
half the night had gone.

In one of his struggles Teeny-bits rolled off the edge of the mattress
on which he had been lying; to his surprise he did not fall with a crash
some two or three feet, as he would have fallen from a bed of the usual
height, but merely dropped a few inches before coming in contact with
the floor. Evidently the mattress rested on springs that were laid
directly on the boards. Teeny-bits rolled himself this way and that
until he brought up against a wall. He was about to roll in the other
direction when he realized that the folds of cloth that bound him were
caught against something; from the feeling--the slight pull that was
exerted against the movement of his body--he came to the conclusion that
it was a nail. He wriggled a few inches length-wise along the wall, and
the sound of ripping cloth came to his ears,--a sound that brought a
thrill of hope. If the bonds that imprisoned him were too strong to be
broken by the power of his muscles, perhaps he could tear and rip them
by edging himself back and forth against the sharp projection which,
judging by sound, had already effected the beginning of what he desired.
By twisting and turning, he succeeded, in the course of the next five
minutes, in gaining a certain amount of freedom for his arms.

When Teeny-bits had left his room in Gannett Hall to answer the
telephone call he had pulled on a light sweater. Now it occurred to him
that if he could catch the lower part o