feeble flashlight then. It was a
wall--the conduit wall!

Meantime, the prison siren shrieked out to the countryside the news of
an escape.

What time it was--whether night or day or what day, neither Jim nor
Old Man Anderson knew. They had slept, of course, and Jim had
forgotten to wind his watch. Had one week or two weeks passed? If two
weeks had slipped by and if the prison officers ran true to form they
would by now have ceased searching inside the prison walls.

Old Man Anderson and Detroit Jim huddled close to each other in the
darkness of the conduit. A hundred times they had crawled from one end
to the other of their vaultlike trap! In their desperate and fruitless
search for an outlet to the conduit they had burned many matches and
several candles. Besides, Old Man Anderson had required light in which
to fight off his attacks of nerves, and the last of the candles had
gone for that. Now total darkness enveloped them.

The conduit was blocked! By earth at one end, and by a brick wall at
the other! All along the winding hundred feet of vault they had hacked
out brick after brick only to encounter solid earth behind. Only a few
tins of food remained and the water was wholly gone; the liquid from
the food cans only served to increase their thirst.

Old Man Anderson had grown to loathe Detroit Jim. Every word he
murmured, every movement he made, intensified the loathing. He had
made up his mind that Jim was planning to desert him the next time he
should fall asleep; perhaps would kill him and leave him there--in the
dark. The two had practically ceased speaking to each other. In his
mental confusion Old Man Anderson kept revolving in his mind, with
satisfaction, a new plan he had evolved. The next time Jim should fall
asleep he would crawl back through the aperture in the conduit wall,
pry up the boards over the opening into the prison yard, wriggle out,
and take his chances in getting over the wall somehow! Better even be
shot by a guard than die like a rat in this unspeakable place, as he
was doing, where he couldn't stand up and dared not lie down on
account of the things that were forever crawling through the place!
His contemplation of his plan was broken in upon by his companion
clutching him spasmodically by the arm. The old man's cry died in his
throat.

Footsteps! Dull and distant they were, and somewhere above
them--momentarily more distinct--receding--gone!

Detroit Jim pulled Andersen's head tow