e ties had disappeared from the
chair overnight.

From sheer nervousness Nyoda began twisting up her felt outing hat in
her hands. As she did so she came upon something hard in the inside of
the crown. Investigating she drew out her Wohelo knife. "I had forgotten
I had it in there," she said. "I put that pocket in my hat just for fun
and slipped the knife in to see if it would go in."

Why is it that a knife in one's hand inspires a desire to cut something?
Nyoda immediately began examining the room for a possible means of
escape with the aid of the knife. Opening the window, she inspected the
setting of the bars closely. They were set only into the wooden window
sill. "Gladys," she whispered excitedly, "I believe we can cut the wood
away from these bars and push them out."

"And what then?" asked Gladys.

"Jump," said Nyoda. "Jump into the lake and swim away."

Not daring to make any attempt in the daytime for fear of the
mysteriously silent visits of the deaf-mute, who never came at any
regular time, they waited until after dark, and then Gladys sat close
beside the elevator shaft, watching for the slightest indication of the
approaching car. Nyoda meanwhile hacked away at the window casing,
cutting and splitting it away from the bars. She worked feverishly for
several hours and succeeded in freeing the ends of three of the bars,
which would be enough to let them through. Just then Gladys gave a
warning hiss. The elevator cord was moving. Nyoda drew the shade down
over the window and closed the purple curtains over it, and both girls
jumped into bed and pulled the covers over them. They had undressed so
as to avert suspicion. The next moment the elevator door opened
silently, but whether it moved up or down or side wise they could not
make out, and the deaf-mute stepped into the room. Guided by a
flash-light, she picked up Gladys's red petticoat from the chair and
departed as silently as she had come. As soon as the elevator had sunk
out of sight the girls were back at work again. Throwing all her weight
against the bars, Nyoda bent them out and upward, the wood that held
them at the top splintering with the strain. Then, leaning out, she
began to cut away the trellis, which was in the way. It was built out
from the sill and had no supports on the ground, and the vines which
were on it came around the corner of the house.

Looking down, she could see that they were indeed right above the lake,
without a foot of