nd got a carpenter
to repair the floor; He soon returned with a carpenter, and told him to
nail them boards down securely. I told some of my associates, to keep him
interested, by asking him how he discovered the hole, and I would fix the
carpenter.

Carelessly lounging up to where he was working, I said in a tone that
could not be heard by anyone else: "I can get those boards up easier if
you break the nails off."

He replied in the same undertone: "I don't care a d--n how soon you get
them up when I get away."

I watched him, and saw that he followed my suggestion, breaking the nails
in two with the claw of his hammer, so that they only a little more than
went through the flooring. After he had finished the Sergeant inspected
the work, and judging from the number of nails that it was securely done,
took his guard and went away.

It seems that the family who lived in the lower part of the jail, kept a
barrel of corn in that room below us, from which they fed their chickens,
and that barrel set right under the hole we had cut; and when the old
woman went to get some corn for her chickens that morning, she found it
covered with chips and cinders, and looking up to ascertain the cause,
discovered the hole in the ceiling. She at once notified the Sergeant of
the discovery, and the result was we had our trouble and work for nothing.

Captain Alban and myself were the only Yankee prisoners in the jail, and
until our arrival there had been no attempt at escape, and to us therefore
was attributed all of the attempts to break out.

While the reb deserters were willing to share with us all the benefits to
be derived from a break, they were too shiftless and lazy to fully enter
into our plans for an escape.

CHAPTER XX.

ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE DISCOVERED--A BOLD PLOT--LACK OF SAND IN THE REB
DESERTERS--A BRAVE NEGRO--THE FLOGGING.

Being satisfied that I could remove the flooring at any time within a few
minutes, I told my fellow prisoners what I had said, and what I had seen
done, and that when everything had become quiet, I would guarantee to get
them out with ten minutes work. Some of the rebs were not satisfied, and
insisted upon loosening the floor again at once, and despite all I could
do, they persisted in doing so. The third night after was settled upon as
the one to leave, as it promised to be dark and rainy, but just before
night, the Sergeant took it into his head to try the floor, and procuring
a