“Ever so much better,” Dick said cheerfully, “since I have heard from you that there is a chance of escape.  I have been fretting so at the thought that I have got Jack into such a wretched mess by my folly in telling the governor that I knew of his treachery.  If it had been only myself, I shouldn’t have cared.”

“Why, my dear Dick,” Jack said cheerfully, “I never dreamt of blaming you, and if you hadn’t spoken out, I have no doubt I should have done so.  No, no, old fellow, whatever comes of it, don’t you blame yourself.”

“Can you stand, do you think?” the doctor asked.

“Oh, I think so,” Dick said; and rising, he managed to totter across the cell.

“That is all right,” the doctor said.  “In a quarter of an hour you shall have a good dinner sent in from a restaurant.  I have arranged for that.  It is of course contrary to rule, but a few roubles have settled it.  There will be supper, too, at eleven o’clock; there will also be a couple of bottles of first-rate Burgundy from the count’s cellar.  You are to eat two good meals, and drink a third of a bottle at each of them.  Your wounds are not in themselves serious, and the only thing that ails you is loss of blood.  We must risk a little accession of fever for the sake of giving you strength.  When you have had your supper, you had best both get to sleep, if you can, for an hour or two.  Whatever arrangements we make will be for about two o’clock in the morning.  And now good-bye for the present; keep up your spirits, and remember that even should any unexpected accident upset our plans for to-night, we will carry them out to-morrow night, as the court-martial will not take place till the afternoon, and there will be at least twenty-four, probably forty-eight hours, between the sentence and its execution.”

So saying, the doctor took his departure, leaving the lads far more cheerful and confident than they had been when he entered.  He seemed indeed to regard the success of the attempt which would be made for their evasion as secured.  The meal, which consisted of some strong and nourishing soup, and a dish of well-cooked meat, shortly arrived, and Dick, after partaking of it, and drinking his prescribed allowance of Burgundy, announced that he felt a man again, and ready for a tussle with the commandant.  After his meal he dozed quietly, for some hours, until aroused by the arrival of supper which consisted again of soup with some poached eggs served on vegetables.

Jack had not tried to sleep, but had enjoyed a pipe which the doctor had, with tobacco, handed to him, his own having been confiscated upon his entrance into the prison.  After supper, however, he threw himself upon the straw and slept soundly, until awakened by a hand being placed on his shoulder.  He leaped to his feet, and saw the warder beside him.  The man carried a lantern.  The candle with which the boys had been furnished by the doctor’s arrangement had burned out.  Jack aroused his comrade, and the two followed the warder, who led the way along the corridor and down the stairs into the courtyard of the prison.