Year: 1875

not but acknowledge the justice of his ar | guments. The more examined my situ- 1 ation, the moro critical it seemed. My aunt had been killed by a pistol-shot. I had been present, armed with pistol. I alone had seen the murderers. The slight traces they had left could have easily been simulated by me. had profited largely by my aunt's death. It would be readily believed that she had told me of the pro- vision she had made for me in her will. l was stranger in the place. There was no one there to vouch for my previous good character. My unprecedented dis regard of all assaults made upon me and my paper by other newspaper men might, and probably would, be regarded by many as evidence of cold-blooded, calculating I guilt had taken d violent hold of the pop ular mind, consequently every circum- stance would be interpreted to my disad vantage. In short, I arrayed against my self mass of circumstantial evidence which almost made me doubt my own innocence. .-...

 Long before morning had made up my mind to escape with Mick if l could Having settled that matter, managed to get little sleep between daylight and breakfast time After breakfast, 1 told Mick had resolved to leave Locofocoyllle at the first opportunity. Before com mencing operations, however. I told him must have time to write full statement of my reasons for leaving, so that Charlie might have no just ground of complaint. Mick readily assented to so much delay. It took me all the forenoon to draw up my explanations. At dinner-time Mick con fiscated all the bread and laid 1t aside. ''Dry bread, said he, ''is far better nor no food. We may soon see 8 place where a bushel of dollars wouldn't buy a peck of potatoes. The dryest crust in life will make us proud men then" After dinner he asked me for a clean sheet of paper. I gave him one, and he emptied the sa1t-cellar into it, folded it neatly, and put it away with the bread. "Ycu can sometimes get meat, and veg etables always, such as they are. in the | woods," said he ''but bread and salt, they're hard to come at when you get where the dogs don't bark"

 From that time forward. as long as we stayed in the cell, we hoarded nearly all the bread and salt that came in our way, and, thanks to Charlie liberality, we laid up fair supply. At Mick's suggestion l also laid by a small plateful of grease. After the dinner dishes had been taken away, Mick called my attention to what seemed to be a speck of of dried clay up on the edge of the sole of one of his shoes.

 ''Just pick out that morsel of putty" said he. ''and see what you will foind.''

 In picking out the putty l found the end of minute saw, made out of the handspring of watch, which I drew out of its sheath in the sole leather with ease. Upon further examination I found that the soles of Mick's shoes contained no less than six of these little saws, some of them as fine as those of a three-cornered file, and some of them coarse enough to saw wood.

 s'Now," said Mick, eff you will be at the trouble of nnscrewing the buttons from the tail of my coat, you will find them mighty convenient as handles for the little saws"

 did as directed, and found that the two innocent-lOoking coat-tail buttons were really knobs, admirably contrived for holding the saws, which could be read fly screwed into them. could not help rehecting that these were probably the only coat-tail buttons in the world capa- ble of serving any useful purpose.

 Hadn't better cut off your handcuffs. the first thing ?" said I.

 ''No, bother the handcuffs can work

  but scratching my back, and that is a lux ury I can't affoord just now. We can at tend to the darbies after we leave this. We've got to do all our saving while them devils are keeping up their rumpus in there beyond. It won't do to fiddle with these things at night, at all, at all.

 ''Why not? ?''

 "Because at night every little noise can be heard. It would be loike one of them assault and battery and petty larceny pups to curry favor with the authorities by putting fieas in our ears, if we give him chance"

 Not being willing that my fellow-pris- oner should monopolize all the shrewd- ness and forecast of our enterprise, took up my mattress and laid 1t upon his, and commenced operations upon the floor blanks where my work would be hidden by my bed, when in place. Mick highly applauded this plan, and went to work diligently cutting the shackles from his ankles, in such a way that he could put them off and on at pleasure. without ex- posing the cut. I was almost provoked to see with what deiberation and how little haste he worked. For my part, I went at my task with such vigor that I was soon obliged to rest my aching arms and back.

 Fair and soft, my boy" said Mick. elf you get on at that rate you'll be break ing your heart and your back and your saw. Take your time. It's two months and more till court sits.

 soon learned to profit by my fellow laborer's precepts and example of ofmodera- tion. kept at my work steadily, but did not hurry. At the end of our second days work, had sawed three of the blanks twice across, between two of the loists or ''sleepers" upon which the floor rested. Lifting the trap thus improv;sed, we discovered, as we expected to do, a mass of rough masonry under the floor.

 ''If the masons in this country were building prisons for their own mothers in-law, do believe they'd sloight their work, said Mick, after inspecting the masonry. 'sThis stone-work Is botched, scratch his way through 1t in less nor three hours. We can move this stuff twice as fast as we could take out loose sand, without shovel. Still, we shall need bar to get through the foundation wall, which is decently built, as one can see from the outside"

 Mick had divested his legs of their shackles-though he still wore them in the presence of the keeper, for politeness'  sake, as he said-and was now busy cut ting of one of the upright bars of wrought iron which ornamented the walls of our apartment, intending to use it for crow bar. He increased the labor of cutting it a good deal by saving diagonally through | 1t, so as to make chisel-shaped end. It was our uniform practice, whenever Ne quit work, to replace the saws in their leathern hiding places and to screw the knobs on the coat tails where they first did duty as ornamental buttons After supper Mick took out and rigged one of the saws, and resumed work, singing a dismal Irish ditty at the top of his voice to drown the noise of the saw, and con- tinued saving and singing until he had severed the bar. I asked him why he worked at night. contrary to the precaation he had himself recommended.

 'In tell you why," said he. five made up my mind to leave this place to- night. Don't you hear the wind and the