and he passed into the long, long Gallery of Ancient
Memories.

CHAPTER IX

THE MEANS OF ESCAPE

A week passed, and Jimbo began to wonder if the pains he so much
dreaded, yet so eagerly longed for, were ever coming at all. The
imprisonment was telling upon him, and he grew very thin, and
consequently very light.

The nights, though he spent them alone, were easily borne, for he was
then intensely occupied, and the time passed swiftly; the moment it was
dark he stepped into the Gallery of Memories, and in a little while
passed into a new world of wonder and delight. But the daytime seemed
always long. He stood for hours by the window watching the trees and the
sky, and what he saw always set painful currents running through his
blood--unsatisfied longings, yearnings, and immense desires he never
could understand.

The white clouds on their swift journeys took with them something from
his heart every time he looked upon them; they melted into air and blue
sky, and lo! that "something" came back to him charged with all the wild
freedom and magic of open spaces, distance, and rushing winds.

But the change was close at hand.

One night, as he was standing by the open window listening to the drip
of the rain, he felt a deadly weakness steal over him; the strength went
out of his legs. First he turned hot, and then he turned cold; clammy
perspiration broke out all over him, and it was all he could do to crawl
across the room and throw himself on to the bed. But no sooner was he
stretched out on the mattress than the feelings passed entirely, and
left behind them an intoxicating sense of strength and lightness. His
muscles became like steel springs; his bones were strong as iron and
light as cork; a wonderful vigour had suddenly come into him, and he
felt as if he had just stepped from a dungeon into fresh air. He was
ready to face anything in the world.

But, before he had time to realise the full enjoyment of these new
sensations, a stinging, blinding pain shot suddenly through his right
shoulder as if a red-hot iron had pierced to the very bone. He screamed
out in agony; though, even while he screamed, the pain passed. Then the
same thing happened in his other shoulder. It shot through his back with
equal swiftness, and was gone, leaving him lying on the bed trembling
with pain. But the instant it was gone the delightful sensations of
strength and lightness returned, and he felt as if his whole body were