Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-08-08
By ROBERT BARR,
''How- are you furnished? Shelf Of
Hunbor Of

':How are you furnished? Shelf of
rock, stone bench?"
"No; there's a table, cot bed and a
wooden chair"
"Why, my dear man, what are you
growing about? They have given you
n of the best rooms in the hotel.
You're in the star chamber"
Where In the name of heaven are
weep
Didn't you recognize the rock from
the deck of a steamer?"
Il never saw the deck Of a steamer?"
"Then how did you come here?'
Il was writing a letter in my room
when some n threw a sack over my
head and tied me up in a bundle, so
that 1t was a close shave I wasn't
smothered. l was taken In what 1
suppose was a cab and flung into what
l afterward learned was the hold Of a
steamer. When the ship stopped, I
was carried like a sack of meal on
some ones shoulder and unhampered
before a gaunt specter in uniform in a
room so dazzling with electric light
that 1 could hardly see. That was a
few minutes ago. Now l am here and
starving. Where is this PRISON."
Like the mikado, as Kate would
say, the authorities are bent on max
ing the punishment fit the crime. You
are in the Rock in the Baltic, which
you fired at with that gun Of yours. I
told you those suave officials at st.
Petersburg were playing with you"
"But why have they put you here,
Jack"
"Oh, l was like the good dog Tray,
who associated with questionable COM
pany, l suppose, and thus got into
trouble"
"Tm sorry"
"You ought to be glad. I'm going to
get out of this place, and I don't be-
lieve you could break Jail unassisted
in twenty years. Here is where science
confronts brutality. L say, Drum
mond, bring your table over to the cor
ner and mount ii. then we can talk
without shouting. Not much chance Of
any one outside hearing us even if we
10 clamor, but this is a damp situation,
and loud talk is bad for the throat.
Cut a slice Of that brown bread and
lunch with me. You'll find it not half
bad, as you say in England, especial
ly when you are hungry. Now" con
tinued Jack as his friend stood oppo-
site him and they found by experiment
that their combined reach was not long
enough to enable them to shake hands
through the bars, now, while you are
l%uxuriating in the menu Of the Trogz-
mondoff I'll give you a sketch of my
plan for escape"
"Do," said Drummond.
II happen to have with me a pair of
bottles containing a substance which
If dissolved in water and sprinkled on
this rock will d~isintegrate it. 1t proves
rather slow work, l must admit, but I
intend to float in to you n of the
bottles and the apparatus, so that you
may help me on your side, which plan
has the advantage of giving you use
full occupation and allowing us to COM
plete our task in half the time, like the
engineers on each side Of the Simplon
tunnel"
"If there are bars in the lower wa
t%ercourse," objected Drummond, won't
against them?"
mot the slightest. I have just sent
that much thinner electric lamp
through, but in this case I'll just tie
up the bottle and squirt gun in my
stocking, attach that to the wire, and
the current will do the rest. You can
unload and I'll pull my stocking back
again. If I dared wrench off a table
leg, I could perhaps shove bottle and
syringe through to you from here, but
the material would come to a dead cen
ter in the middle of this tunnel unless
I had a stick to push it within your
reach.
Very we'll; We'll work away until
our excavation connects and we have
made it of sufficient diameter for you
to squeeze through. You are then in
my cell. We put out our lights, and
you conceal yourself behind the door.
Jailer and man with the lantern come
In. You must be very careful not to
close the door, because if you once
shove it shut we can't open it from this
side, even though it is unlocked and
the bolts drawn. 1t fits like wax and
almost Theoretically seals the room.
You spring forward and deal the jailer
with your fist one Of your justly cele-
brated English Touchdown blows, i'm
mediately after telling the man with
the lantern. Knowing something Of
the weight Of your blow, I take it that
neither Of the two men will recover
consciousness until we have taken of
their outer garments, secured revolv-
ers and keys. Then we lock them In,
you and I on the outside"
my dear Jack, we don't need any
tunnel to accomplish that. The first
time these two men come into my
room I can knock them down as easily
here as there"
II thought Of that, and perhaps you
could, but you must remember we have
only n shot. II you made a mistake,
II the lantern man bolted and fred his
pistol and once closed the door-he