Thirstily they gulped down the water, and then sat
down to wait.
The long hours passed slowly.
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Chester finally. "Won't nine o'clock ever come?"
"Hold your horses and don't get excited," ordered Lieutenant Anderson.
"Impatience won't get us anything."
Chester subsided, and for a time the four sat in silence.
Suddenly the stillness was broken by the faint sound of a distant bell.
The young lieutenant pulled his watch from his pocket. Then he closed the
case with a snap and rose to his feet.
"Nine o'clock!" he said briefly. "Time to be moving!"
Cautiously the four approached the cell door. Hal pressed his weight
against it, and slowly the huge door swung outward. Poking out his head,
Hal glanced up and down the corridor.
"No one in sight," he informed his companions, and softly the four
stepped outside, closing the door gently behind them.
Silently four shadows flitted along the corridor, out across the bridge
and to the wall beyond. They encountered no one.
"Your Uncle Billy is a jewel," declared the young Frenchman, in a
whisper.
"He is for a fact," whispered back the lieutenant.
Chester crept silently through the gate and peered in all directions.
Then he crept back to his companions.
"All safe!" he whispered.
"Now to get to the place where Uncle Billy said friends would be
waiting," said Hal.
"I guess we had better make it at a run," spoke up the Frenchman.
"Yes," said the lieutenant; "some one might happen along and we would
have to make a fight for it.
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