ich would be very difficult to detach from their places. Beyond
these, again, there would be a bottom of hard mahogany, to say nothing
of the case on the other side, and through these another aperture would
have to be made to let me out.

Still, other difficulties stared me in the face. Even should I succeed
in getting the works loose, and drawing them out, and disposing of them
behind me, would I then find room enough within the shell of the
instrument to enable me to cut through its opposite side and also the
case, and, still more, to make an entrance into whatever case or box lay
beyond? This was a doubtful point, though not very doubtful. It was
rather too certain that I could not do so.

Still, I might work upwards once I had cleared out the shell; but the
clearing out the shell was of itself the most doubtful point; for that I
feared I should not be able to effect at all.

On the whole, the difficulty of this enterprise quite dismayed me; and
the more I thought about it, the less inclination I felt to attempt it.
After considering it in all its bearings, I abandoned the idea
altogether; and instead of trying to make a breach through the great
wall of mahogany, I resolved upon "turning" it.

I was considerably chagrined at being forced into this resolution, the
more so that I had lost half a day's labour in hewing through the
outside case; and all this, as well as the opening of the end of the
cloth-box, now counted for nothing. But it could not be helped. I had
no time to spend in idle regrets; and, like a besieging general, I
commenced a fresh _reconnaissance_ of the ground, in order to discover
what would be my best route to _outflank_ the fortress.

I was still under the belief that it was a bale of linen that lay on the
top, and this quite hindered me from thinking of going upward. My
attention was turned, therefore, to the right and the left.

I knew that by tunnelling either way I should gain no advantage. It
would not bring me an inch nearer the desired goal; and even after I
should have made a stage in either direction, I should still be only in
the "second tier." This was discouraging enough--more loss of labour
and time--but I dreaded that horrid bale of linen!

One advantage I had gained by knocking out the whole end of the
cloth-case. I have already said there was a space of several inches
between it and the great _coffin_ that contained the piano. Into this
space I could insert my ar