them? Even at meal-time guards stood everywhere
watching every move. His duties did not take him out of the dining-room.
Calhoun began by making a careful survey of the building in which the
prisoners were confined. Fortune favored him. One day he made a remark to
one of the employees of the prison that the floor of the building seemed
to be remarkably dry and free from damp.

"It should be," was the reply; "there is an air chamber under the floor."

Like a flash there came to Calhoun a plan for escape. If this air chamber
could be reached a tunnel might be run out. He took careful note of all
the surroundings, and drew a plan of the buildings and surrounding
grounds. These he managed to pass to Morgan unobserved. At the next
meal-time as Morgan passed him, he said, as if to himself, "No tools."

This was a difficult matter. Nothing of any size could be passed to them
without discovery. But in the hospital Calhoun found some large and finely
tempered table-knives. He managed to conceal several of these around his
person, and one by one they were given to Morgan.

Calhoun now waited in feverish excitement for the success of the plan. He
had done all he could. The rest depended on the prisoners themselves.
Through the shrewdness and indomitable energy of Captain Thomas H. Hines
the work was carried to a successful termination inside the prison wall.

General Morgan occupied a cell in the second tier, and could do nothing.
Only those who occupied cells on the ground floor had any hopes of
escaping. Captain Hines, with infinite labor made an opening through the
floor of his cell into the air chamber. Once in the air chamber they could
work without being discovered. With only the table-knives to work with,
these men went through two solid walls, one five feet, and the other six
feet in thickness. Not only that, but they went through eleven feet of
grouting. Then, working from under, they went through the floors of six
cells, leaving only a thin scale of cement, which could be broken through
by a pressure from the foot. The work was commenced November 4, and
finished November 24. Thus in twenty days seven men, working one at a
time, had accomplished what seemed almost impossible.

During these days Calhoun could only wait and hope. As the prisoners
passed him in the dining-room, all they could say was "Progressing," "Not
discovered yet," "All is well so far." At last, on the 24th, Calhoun heard
the welcome words, "Finish