m these two men all next day in tormenting anxiety, and the weary
hours went by on leaden wings. At last the sickening word came that the
planks yet to be removed before they could enter the main sewer were of
seasoned oak--hard as bone, and three inches thick. Their feeble tools
were now worn out or broken; they could no longer get air to work, or
keep a light in the horrible pit, which was reeking with cold mud; in
short, any attempt at further progress with the utensils at hand was
foolish.

Most of the party were now really ill from the foul stench in which they
had lived so long. The visions of liberty that had first lured them to
desperate efforts under the inspiration of Rose and Hamilton had at last
faded, and one by one they lost heart and hope, and frankly told Colonel
Rose that they could do no more. The party was therefore disbanded, and
the yet sanguine leader, with Hamilton for his sole helper, continued
the work alone. Up to this time thirty-nine nights had been spent in the
work of excavation. The two men now made a careful examination of the
northeast corner of the cellar, at which point the earth's surface
outside the prison wall, being eight or nine feet higher than at the
canal or south side, afforded a better place to dig than the latter,
being free from water and with clay-top enough to support itself. The
unfavorable feature of this point was that the only possible terminus of
a tunnel was a yard between the buildings beyond the vacant lot on the
east of Libby. Another objection was that, even when the tunnel should
be made to that point, the exit of any escaping party must be made
through an arched wagon-way under the building that faced the street on
the canal side, and every man must emerge on the sidewalk in sight of
the sentinel on the south side of the prison, the intervening space
being in the full glare of the gas-lamp. It was carefully noted, however
by Rose, long before this, that the west end of the beat of the nearest
sentinel was between fifty and sixty feet from the point of egress, and
it was concluded that by walking away at the moment the sentinel
commenced his pace westward, one would be far enough into the shadow to
make it improbable that the color of his clothing could be made out by
the sentinel when he faced about to return toward the eastern end of his
beat, which terminated ten to fifteen feet east of the prison wall. It
was further considered that as these sentinels had fo