ny attempt to rescue
him by force, and the barred windows and the sentry seemed to close
every chance of communication from without. On the tenth day of his
imprisonment, he noticed that the sergeant who brought his food had
been changed.

"What has become of Sergeant Pipon?" he asked the non-commissioned
officer who filled his place.

"He was killed yesterday evening, in the streets," the man replied.
"It was not an ordinary broil, for he had half-a-dozen dagger
stabs. It is some time since those dogs of Spaniards have killed a
French soldier in the town, and there is a great fuss over it. The
municipality will have to pay 10,000 dollars, if they cannot
produce his murderer. It is curious, too, for Pipon was not a man
to get drunk. He did not speak a word of the language, and
therefore could not have had a dispute with a Spaniard.

"We have been ordered to be more vigilant than before. I suppose
the authorities think that perhaps there was some attempt to bribe
him and, on his seizing the man who made it, some of the fellow's
comrades rushed upon him, and killed him."

Ryan wondered whether the supposition was a correct one, and
whether the men concerned had been set at work by Terence, in order
to effect his release. Two days later, on cutting the loaf that
formed his day's ration of bread, he found a small piece of paper
in its centre. It had evidently been put there before the bread was
baked for, although he examined it very closely, he could find no
sign in the crust of an incision by which the note might have been
inserted. It contained only the words:

"Keep your eyes open, and be in readiness. Friends are working for
your release."

So Terence was at work. Evidently the baker had been gained over,
but how it had been contrived that this special loaf should have
been handed to him he could not imagine; unless one of the men in
charge of the distribution of the prison rations had been bribed.
That something of the sort must have taken place he was certain
and, although he was still unable to imagine how he could be got
out of the prison, he felt that, in some way or another, Terence
would manage it. He thought over the means by which the latter had
escaped from the convent, but the laxity that had there prevailed,
in allowing people to come in to sell their goods to the prisoners,
was not permitted in the prison where he was confined. The
prisoners were, indeed, allowed to take exercise for an hour in th