Robur the Conqueror

ything but pleased with their position. Knowing not who had seized them, nor in what they had been thrown like parcels in a goods wagon, nor where they were, nor what was reserved

cle Prudent felt. One thing was evident, that Phil Evans an

mouth closed, it was impossible for him to t

their gags, to everything that betrayed anger kept dumb and fury imprisoned, or rather bound down. Then after many fruitless efforts they remained for some time as though lifeless. Then as the sense of sight was denied them they tried by thei

acken the cord which bound his wrists. Little by little the knot slipped, his

which bound his eyes, taken the gag out of his mouth, and cut the cords round his ankles wi

eyes were useless to him-at present at any rate. The prison was quite dark, though

at once set free his rival. A few cuts with the bow

ose to his knees and snatch

id he, in st

l Ev

e Pru

nt and secretary of the Weldon Ins

o men agreed to avenge ourselves on a third whose at

ob

is R

tely in accord. On this subjec

ointing to Frycollin, who was puffing

erwhelm us with his jeremiads, and we have

hat, Uncle

urselves i

, even if it i

if it is i

elry, and purses, and thrown their bodies into the Schuyllkill with a good gash in their throats instead of throwing them to the bo

ve happened. Had we remained in the streets of Philadelphia there would have been none of this. Evidently Robur foresaw what would happen at the club, and had placed some of his bandits o

. "We were wrong not

ng not to be righ

rom the darkest corner of the pr

rycollin is

and the moment we were thrown in here only two minutes elapsed. It is

so we should have felt

in some vehicle, perhaps some of those l

ored on the Schuyllkill we should have

g, I think that now is the time to get away, an

tempt on the liberty of two c

ll pay pret

does he come from? Is he Eng

" And then the two men, with their hands stretched out and their finge

e to shoot back the lock. All that could be done was to make a hole, and escape

rustling?" asked Evans, who was much

btless," said

thought the night

it isn't the wind

enable him to open it from the outside should it be only bolted or should the key have been left in the lock. He worked away for

cut?" asked

N

l made of s

metallic sound

of ir

t iron and i

is it

ent, in a sudden outburst of fury, began to rave and stamp on the so

ent, be calm!

nothing against a wall which its best blades could n

for the Yankee temperament, and very much to the disgust of these eminently practical men. But this conclusion was not arrived at without many objurgations and l

a most lamentable fashion, either with cramp in his stomach or in his limbs; and Uncle Pru

ors of fear were mingled with the tortures of hunger. Frycollin was no worse in his brain than in his stomach

!" said Un

" answered the Negro between

, but we have made up our minds not to succumb until we have avail

" exclaimed

er such circumstances! So you had b

your bones pic

two existences more precious than his own, he con

not stone, And all the cell seemed to be made of the same stuff. When they stamped on the floor it gave a peculiar sound that Uncle Prudent found it difficult to describe; the floor s

ent," said

el

r prison has bee

at I kn

nce of the grass and the resinous odor of the park trees. While now, when

it h

hy

nd I say again that if the prison had moved, either as a vehicl

which might have been taken for his last h

on have us brought befo

Uncle Prudent. "An

ha

ing rude and ended i

window opposite the door. It ought thus to be about four o'clock in the morning for it is at that hour in t

asterpiece from his colleague's factory-the tiny gong onl

Evans. "At a quarter to three

has got slow," ans

lton Watch Company!"

darkness of the cell. However, if the dawn appeared sooner than the fortieth parallel permitted, it did not advance with

p to the window an

Uncle Prudent. "F

egro

inued Prudent, "and you, Evans, get on

!" sai

ith the window. The window was not of lenticular glass like those on shipboard, but was

udent, "and perhaps you wi

e handle of his bowie-knife. It gave bac

e violent blow.

akable glass

f glass toughened on the Siemens system-a

Evans could see for some distance wi

see?" asked U

thi

Not any

N

the top

N

e not in th

e clearing nor

onuments?" said Prudent, whose disappoi

N

aff, nor a church t

ng but

oor opened. A man appeared on

in a serious voice, "you are now

claimed Un

e limits of th

ns rushed out of their pri

m the face of a country they