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  to gnawing his nails, while I sat and considered the proposition.

"To tell the truth, Doctor, it was not at all attractive. To be sure, the guards were a scrubby lot, but there were plenty of them, and the prisoners were locked up and had no knowledge of any plan for escape. Moreover, we did not know in what part of the prison they were confined, nor had we any plan of the inside of the place.

You do not object to making an attempt, Leyden?' asked Rosenthal, who had been watching me narrowly.

" 'Not if I were able to see how it could be done,' I answered, slowly, for, you see, Doctor, he had engaged my services for a particular piece of work and I was professionally bound. If it had been my custom to abandon a project because it was dangerous I must long ago have sought another profession. 'Would it not be much better to wait until we can try to bribe the guards or establish some communication with the prisoners?' said I. [ 134 ]