went out the back way.

At the mouth of the passage Curdie seized the rope, drew himself up,
pushed away the shutter, and entered the dungeon. Then he swung the
end of the rope to Lina, and she caught it in her teeth. When her
master said, 'Now, Lina!' she gave a great spring, and he ran away with
the end of the rope as fast as ever he could. And such a spring had
she made, that by the time he had to bear her weight she was within a
few feet of the hole. The instant she got a paw through, she was all
through.

Apparently their enemies were waiting till hunger should have cowed
them, for there was no sign of any attempt having been made to open the
door. A blow or two of Curdie's mattock drove the shattered lock clean
from it, and telling Lina to wait there till he came back, and let no
one in, he walked out into the silent street, and drew the door to
behind them. He could hardly believe it was not yet a whole day since
he had been thrown in there with his hands tied at his back.

Down the town he went, walking in the middle of the street, that, if
any one saw him, he might see he was not afraid, and hesitate to rouse
an attack on him. As to the dogs, ever since the death of their two
companions, a shadow that looked like a mattock was enough to make them
scamper. As soon as he reached the archway of the city gate he turned
to reconnoitre the baker's shop, and perceiving no sign of movement,
waited there watching for the first.

After about an hour, the door opened, and the baker's man appeared with
a pail in his hand. He went to a pump that stood in the street, and
having filled his pail returned with it into the shop. Curdie stole
after him, found the door on the latch, opened it very gently, peeped
in, saw nobody, and entered. Remembering perfectly from what shelf the
baker's wife had taken the loaf she said was the best, and seeing just
one upon it, he seized it, laid the price of it on the counter, and
sped softly out, and up the street. Once more in the dungeon beside
Lina, his first thought was to fasten up the door again, which would
have been easy, so many iron fragments of all sorts and sizes lay
about; but he bethought himself that if he left it as it was, and they
came to find him, they would conclude at once that they had made their
escape by it, and would look no farther so as to discover the hole. He
therefore merely pushed the door close and left it. Then once more
carefully arranging the