ces of failure, chiefly so because all the
police from top to bottom knew me by sight, and if one of them happened
to be one of the half hundred witnesses of my jump he might have wit
enough to seize me.

Nunn and my friend were to be under the window ready to act according to
circumstances. Above all, to be ready to seize hold of any one who
manifested any intention to detain me. Nunn was full of courage and
hope. At 7 o'clock he went away, not to see me again until we met
outside the barracks. I called the guard and three or four idle soldiers
into my room and served them out liberal doses of brandy. Unluckily
enough, however, the one on duty would drink but lightly. Soon after 8
Consul-General Torbet came in to smoke a cigar and have a chat. He
remained until nearly 10, and then departed. Then I felt the hour had
indeed come. I thrust the revolver inside my shirt, and rolled up a cap
and put it in the same place. Then calling the sentry, I gave him a
drink and a cigar, and stepping out into the hall, I began my usual
march around through the upper rooms of the barracks. I was to go out of
the window at precisely 10. It wanted ten minutes of that time. It was a
long ten minutes to me, but I marched around puffing my cigar
unconcernedly, with an eye on the door I was to slip through. At the
hour I had my watch in my hand, and was in the room farthest from the
door of exit into the room opening on the street. I walked swiftly
through the two intervening rooms and so was for a brief four or five
seconds out of sight of the slow following sentinel. I reached the door,
opened it, stepped through and instantly locked it. In a moment I was
through the open window into the little iron balcony outside. One swift
glance showed me the street thronged with people, but hesitation meant
failure and death. I climbed lightly over the railing and hung suspended
for an instant from the bottom; the crowd below made a circle from
under, and I dropped easily to the ground, bareheaded, of course. Nunn
was there, and instantly clapped a large straw hat on my head. The
strange incident did not seem to attract the least notice, for in a
moment we were lost in the crowd. I had my hand on my revolver, and had
so strong a belief I should every second be confronted by Curtin that I
was strangely surprised when I saw no sign of the gentleman. In less
time than it takes to tell it, I was down into an open hallway and then
into a room. I and Nunn, w