ok up the piece of bread and
carefully crumbled it away. In the middle was the thing he had expected,
a bundle of small files. It was wrapped in a bit of paper, on which a
few words were written. He smoothed the paper out carefully and carried
it to what little light there was. The writing was crowded into so
narrow a space, and on such thin paper, that it was very difficult to
read.

"The door is unlocked, and there is no moon. Get the filing done as fast
as possible, and come by the passage between two and three. We are quite
ready and may not have another chance."

He crushed the paper feverishly in his hand. All the preparations were
ready, then, and he had only to file the window bars; how lucky it was
that the chains were off! He need not stop about filing them. How many
bars were there? Two, four; and each must be filed in two places: eight.
Oh, he could manage that in the course of the night if he made
haste---- How had Gemma and Martini contrived to get everything ready so
quickly--disguises, passports, hiding-places? They must have worked like
cart-horses to do it---- And it was her plan that had been adopted after
all. He laughed a little to himself at his own foolishness; as if it
mattered whether the plan was hers or not, once it was a good one! And
yet he could not help being glad that it was she who had struck on
the idea of his utilizing the subterranean passage, instead of letting
himself down by a rope-ladder, as the smugglers had at first suggested.
Hers was the more complex and difficult plan, but did not involve, as
the other did, a risk to the life of the sentinel on duty outside the
east wall. Therefore, when the two schemes had been laid before him, he
had unhesitatingly chosen Gemma's.

The arrangement was that the friendly guard who went by the nickname of
"The Cricket" should seize the first opportunity of unlocking, without
the knowledge of his fellows, the iron gate leading from the courtyard
into the subterranean passage underneath the ramparts, and should then
replace the key on its nail in the guard-room. The Gadfly, on receiving
information of this, was to file through the bars of his window, tear
his shirt into strips and plait them into a rope, by means of which he
could let himself down on to the broad east wall of the courtyard. Along
this wall he was to creep on hands and knees while the sentinel was
looking in the opposite direction, lying flat upon the masonry whenever
the