hanging from your window, at midnight on the third night from now,
without fail; I can do nothing until then. I have contrived to get
this message concealed in your food on this one occasion, but I shall
never be able to do so again. So you must somehow or another manage
to lower to the ground the thin cord of which I told you. Without
that I cannot aid you.

"I shall wait here for a time, so that you can throw down a note
saying you have received my message; but say no more besides that. If
I do not hear from you now, I shall return on the third night, and the
cord must be in its place by then. For the present, farewell!

"From a true friend."

This was a long message; but the man who wrote it had done so in such
small letters that it occupied but little space. So small, indeed, was
the writing that it was as much as they could do to decipher it.

When they had finishing reading this remarkable communication, the lads
looked at each other for a moment in utter amazement.

Suddenly Roger ejaculated: "Ah, of course! Now I have it, Harry! The
man that we saw waiting below the window--he was the person who wrote
this; and he was waiting for the answer, as he said in the note. That
is why he seemed to expect us to throw him something. Oh, why, why did
we not think of looking sooner? But, of course, we expected nothing of
the kind. Anyhow he says he will return on the third night from now.
But where, Harry, are we going to get that cord that he wants us to hang
from the window? Our escape hinges upon our getting it; and yet--where
is it to come from? It is utterly impossible for us to get hold of a
cord or line of any sort, so far as I can see. I wonder who the fellow
is; and can we trust him?"

"Well," replied Harry, "you saw what he wrote in that message. In five
days from now, unless we can meanwhile escape, we are doomed to die an
awful death. The man would, I should say, have no object in betraying
us; because, if we are already sentenced to death, they do not need any
excuse for executing us. And I do not see what the man has to gain by
deceiving us. No, Roger, I think the man is genuine enough; and in any
case, if we are to suffer death, we may as well die in the attempt to
escape as wait here for death to come to us. Is it not so, my friend?

"But perhaps we had better put off the further discussion of this until
we have eaten the food. If, when they come to put in our n