“It would be better not to do so,” he said, “but you are your own master, and I see I cannot dissuade you from the attempt.  But, boy, you will promise me not to take any unnecessary or foolish risks?”

“I promise gladly, and, Mr. Austin, I hate to leave you here.”

Their quarters were commodious and Ned slept alone in a small room to the left of the main apartment.  It was a bare place with only a bed and a chair, but it was lighted by a fairly large window.  Ned examined this window critically.  It had a horizontal iron bar across the middle, and it was about thirty feet from the ground.  He pulled at the iron bar with both hands but, although rusty with time, it would not move in its socket.  Then he measured the two spaces between the bar and the wall.

Hope sprang up in the boy’s heart.  Then he did a strange thing.  He removed nearly all his clothing and tried to press his head and shoulders between the bar and the wall.  His head, which was of the long narrow type, so common in the scholar, would have gone through the aperture, had it not been for his hair which was long, and which grew uncommonly thick.  His shoulders were very thick and broad and they, too, halted him.  He drew back and felt a keen thrill of disappointment.

But he was a boy who usually clung tenaciously to an idea, and, sitting down, he concentrated his mind upon the plan that he had formed.  By and by a possible way out came to him.  Then he lay down upon the bed, drew a blanket over him because the night was chill in the City of Mexico, and calmly sought sleep.

CHAPTER II

A HAIR-CUT

The optimism of Mr. Austin endured the next morning, but Ned was gloomy.  Since it was his habit to be silent, the man did not notice it at first.  The breakfast was good, with tortillas, frijoles, other Mexican dishes and coffee, but the boy had no appetite.  He merely picked at his food, made a faint effort or two to drink his coffee and finally put the cup back almost full in the saucer.  Then Mr. Austin began to observe.

“Are you ill, Ned?” he asked.  “Is this imprisonment beginning to tell upon you?  I had thought that you were standing it well.  Can’t you eat?”

“I don’t believe I’m hungry,” replied the boy, “but there is nothing else the matter with me.  I’ll be all right, Uncle Steve.  Don’t you bother about me.”

He ate a little breakfast, about one half of the usual amount, and then, asking to be excused, went to the window, where he again stared out at the tiled roofs, the green foliage in the valley of Mexico and the ranges and peaks beyond.  He was taking his resolution, and he was carrying it out, but it was hard, very hard.  He foresaw that he would have to strengthen his will many, many times.  Mr. Austin took no further worry on Ned’s account, thinking that he would be all right again in a day or two.