He made his rope at least thirty
feet long and then gave it a final test, knot by knot. He judged that it
was now near midnight and the skies were still very dark. Inside of a
half hour he would be gone--to what? He was seized with an intense
yearning to wake up Mr. Austin and tell him good-by. The Texan leader
had been so good to him, he would worry so much about him that it was
almost heartless to slip away in this manner. But he checked the
impulse again, and went swiftly ahead with his work.
He kept on nothing but his underclothing and trousers. The rest he made
up into a small package which he tied upon his back. He was sorry that
he did not have any weapon. He had been deprived of even his
pocket-knife, but he did have a few dollars of Spanish coinage, which he
stowed carefully in his trousers pocket. All the while his energy
endured despite his wasted form. Hope made a bridge for his weakness.
He let the line out of the window, and his delicate sense told him when
it struck against the ground. Six or eight feet were left in his hand,
and he tied the end firmly to the bar, knotting it again and again. Then
he slipped through the opening and the passage was so close that his
ears scraped as they went by.
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