Their dismay was mutual. Not only was the safe door open, but the paper was gone.
Question the emissary as they would, they could get nothing out of him. Such men have keenly developed the gang instinct of silence. They would sooner die than squeal.
Even a night in jail failed to break the reticence of the emissary, although he had been subjected to the most strenuous third degree.
Not only had his spirit not been broken, but the fellow was keenly alert and planning a way to secure his own release.
As a prison guard was taking the emissary back to his cell, after a thorough quizzing by Locke in the warden's office, the emissary whispered:
The guard looked about, saw that the coast was clear to speak, but before he could do so the emissary spoke again.
Quickly the thug scratched away at a note.
"Deliver that," he said to the guard, handing him the note he had written, "and you'll get something worth while."
The guard nodded as he shoved the thug into his cell and locked the door, then walked off, while the fellow watched eagerly through the bars.
Locke in the warden's office, unsuccessful in making the prisoner talk, had evolved another scheme.
"Put me in the cell next to him," decided Locke. "I have a plan."
It was while the false guard was reading the address on the note that Locke and the warden entered the cell row. The guard hastily stuffed the message in his pocket as Locke and the warden passed up toward the empty next cell.
Locke went through all the actions of one who was being thrown into a cell, and the emissary in his own cell listened without suspecting anything. Locke had arranged with the warden to leave the cell unlocked, but no sooner had the warden left than the guard, who had been observing, moved over and shot the bolts.
Here, then, was a predicament. Locke could not give the alarm without putting the emissary in the next cell on guard. Rapidly Locke revolved in his head scheme after scheme. He was an expert on bolts and knew that at any moment he could release himself. Should he do so now? Instead he concluded to wait until the guard returned, for by the man's actions Locke was sure that something queer was going on, although, naturally, he did not know what it was. Accordingly Locke lay down on the bunk in the cell and decided to wait.