on of some traitorous prisoner, whose identity never was discovered.
This man, whoever he was, had good reason to thank his lucky stars that
we were not able to locate him.

Some miserable coward informed the rebels of our work, and, after
repeated surveys, they managed to swamp the enterprise, catching the
digger, who then happened to be Abel Crow, in the tunnel. Crow was taken
outside and made to mark time for hours in the effort to compel his
betrayal of the others interested with him in the work. When the guards
thought he was about tired out they would question him as to who were
his helpers, but he was true blue. He stuttered a good deal under
ordinary circumstances, and, when excited, could scarcely be understood
by anyone not used to his manner of speech. His uniform reply to the
questions asked was:

"M-m-m-my n-n-n-na-na-n-na-name is A-a-a-ab-a-ab-el-Abel
Cro-cro-cro-Crow, and I d-d-do-do-don't kn-know anyb-b-bod-y else."

The rebels tried to get this man to say more, and they kept at him until
forced to give up the attempt as a bad job, when they complimented him
upon his grit and sent him inside without further punishment.

The tunnel had reached fully thirty feet beyond the fence and picket
line when the work was stopped, and Abel told one of the guards who were
assisting him to mark time during the attempt to learn the names of his
co-workers that he could stop work in the tunnel and plainly hear the
guard's "One o'clock and all's well," which he knew to be a d----d lie,
further informing his listeners that if they had not been in such a
d----d big hurry the job would have been finished in about two more days
and nights and many of the prisoners would have handed in their
resignations.

The statements of Crow to the guard were made in his own stammering way,
which must be imagined by the reader, with the assistance of the
illustration given of Abel's ability for speech-making, and his
combination of frankness and reticence made him no enemies.

Of the disappointment consequent upon the failure of this tunnel to
reach the outer world at the proper time and place little need be said.
It was only one of many failures, and while the progress made had
encouraged a very strong hope, if not expectation, of success, the
result was not so exceptional as to cause despair. All who had had
confidence in the success of the scheme were naturally a little
crestfallen, but we still continued to nourish hopes of a di