had come.  I reasoned, too, that it would be easier and safer to escape from that ward—­which was on a level with the ground—­than from a ward three stories above it.  The next thing I did was to inform the attendants (not to mention several of the patients) that within a day or two I should do something to cause my removal to it.  They of course did not believe that I had any idea of deliberately inviting such a transfer.  My very frankness disarmed them.

On the evening of November 21st, I went from room to room collecting all sorts of odds and ends belonging to other patients.  These I secreted in my room.  I also collected a small library of books, magazines and newspapers.  After securing all the booty I dared, I mingled with the other patients until the time came for going to bed.  The attendants soon locked me in my junk shop and I spent the rest of the night setting it in disorder.  My original plan had been to barricade the door during the night, and thus hold the doctors and attendants at bay until those in authority had accepted my ultimatum, which was to include a Thanksgiving visit at home.  But before morning I had slightly altered my plan.  My sleepless night of activity had made me ravenously hungry, and I decided that it would be wiser not only to fill my stomach, but to lay by other supplies of food before submitting to a siege.  Accordingly I set things to rights and went about my business the next morning as usual.  At breakfast I ate enough for two men, and put in my pockets bread enough to last for twenty-four hours at least.  Then I returned to my room and at once barricaded the door.  My barricade consisted of a wardrobe, several drawers which I had removed from the bureau, and a number of books—­among them “Paradise Lost” and the Bible.  These, with conscious satisfaction, I placed in position as a keystone.  Thus the floor space between the door and the opposite wall of the room was completely filled.  My roommate, a young fellow in the speechless condition in which I had been during my period of depression, was in the room with me.  This was accidental.  It was no part of my plan to hold him as a hostage, though I might finally have used him as a pawn in the negotiations, had my barricade resisted the impending attack longer than it did.

It was not long before the attendants realized that something was wrong.  They came to my door and asked me to open it.  I refused, and told them that to argue the point would be a waste of time.  They tried to force an entrance.  Failing in that, they reported to the assistant physician, who soon appeared.  At first he parleyed with me.  I good-naturedly, but emphatically, told him that I could not be talked out of the position I had taken; nor could I be taken out of it until I was ready to surrender, for my barricade was one that would surely hold.  I also announced that I had carefully planned my line of action and knew what I was about.  I complimented him on his hitherto tactful treatment of me, and grandiloquently—­yet