'None of your gab, I tell you! If you speak another word, I'll have you
jacketed: and then b--- me, my kiddy, if you get it off again in a
hurry!'
I said no more, but ate my dinner; casting an eye occasionally to the
door, and conjecturing what were the probabilities, by a very sudden
spring, of breaking the chain, for he had only put one up, or of
drawing the staple by which it was held, and which, from the thickness
of the wood-work, I knew could not be clenched. It was not possible, I
believe, for mind to be actuated by stronger motives than mine was, in
my wish to escape: the circumstance of the single chain might not occur
a second time, and I determined on the trial.
I prolonged my dinner till I perceived him begin to yawn, and at last
turn his head the other way. I was about twelve feet distant from the
door. I rose quietly, made two steps, and then gave a sudden spring. I
came with great violence against the door, but it resisted me, and of
course, I fell backward.
After the first moment of surprise, the keeper instantly locked the
door, and, in a rage of cursing, called his assistants. They however
soon pacified him, by turning his attention to the strength of his own
fastenings, and scoffing at my fruitless attempt.
But this incident induced him to change his mode: he stood no more with
the door ajar to watch me, but, after sending in the boy, locked and
bolted it upon us.
I was in full expectation of the straight waistcoat; and his
forbearance, I imagine, was occasioned by the strict orders he must
have received to the contrary. His threat indeed, when I attempted to
speak, is a proof rather against this supposition; and I can solve it
no other way than by supposing that his orders were, if I attempted
persuasion with him, he would then be at liberty to do a thing to which
he seemed exceedingly prone. His fears for himself, should I escape,
must inevitably be strong; and a man, who has waded far enough in error
to commit an act so violent, will willingly plunge deeper, in
proportion as such fears increase.
The sudden spring I had made at the door, combining with the
supposition of madness, had such an effect upon the poor boy that,
hearing the door lock and seeing me as he imagined let loose upon him,
his fright returned in full force. His looks were so pale, and he
trembled so violently, that I feared he would fall into a fit. I went
up to him with the utmost gentleness, and said--Don't be afraid, my
good boy! Indeed I will not hurt you.
The keeper scarcely stayed a minute before, recollecting I had been
long enough at dinner, he opened the door again, but with the caution
of the three chains, and bade the boy take away.
I then began to accuse myself of precipitancy; but I soon remembered
that every thing ought to be hazarded, where every thing is at stake.
My fears were not for myself; and, while my arms were free, could I
have come upon them thus suddenly, success was far from improbable.
Vice is always cowardly; and, difference of weapons out of the
question, three to one are not invincible odds.
It now first occurred to me how prudent it would be to conceal my
bank-bills, and I began to consider which were the best means. I took
them out, examined their numbers, and endeavoured to fix them in my
memory.
This was no difficult task; but prudence required that nothing should
be left to chance, and I took the burnt end of my stick, and going into
the back room, wrote the numbers against the wall, in a place which,
from its darkness, was least liable to notice. Indeed I considered
there was little to fear, even should the figures I made be seen, for I
wrote them in one continued line, which rendered them unintelligible
without a key.
I then once more took my chair, and placed it at the closet door;
thinking that to hide them at one corner of the topmost shelf might
perhaps be the securest place. I previously began to feel, and, at the
far end of the shelf, I put my hand upon something; which, when brought
to light, proved to be the remainder of a bundle of quills.