“Let us come to the second point, the window.”

They looked up at it.  The sill was fully six feet from the ground.  The window was a little over a foot wide, with a heavy bar running down the centre, and cross bars.

“The first point is to see where it looks out on,” Desmond said.  “I will stand against the wall, and as you are the lighter of the two, O’Neil, you can stand on my shoulder and have a good look out, and tell us what you see.

“Give him your hand, O’Sullivan.

“Put your foot on that, O’Neil, and then step on my shoulder.”

O’Neil was soon in his place.

“You need not hold me,” he said.  “The wall is very thick, the bars are placed in the middle, and there is just room for me to take a seat on the edge, then I can see things at my ease.”

He sat looking out, for a minute or two, before he spoke.

“Well, what can you see?” O’Sullivan asked, impatiently.

“This room is on the outer side of the prison,” he said.  “I noticed, as we came in, that it was built along on both sides of the gate; and, no doubt, this side stands on the city wall.”

“Then what do you see?”

“I see the ground, sloping steeply down to a stream that runs along the bottom of it.  There are a good many small houses, scattered about on the slope and along by the stream.  Over to the left, there is a stone bridge across it.  Near this is a large building, that looks like another prison, and a marketplace with stalls in it.  Houses stand thickly on either side of the road, and beyond the bridge the opposite side of the slope is covered with them.  Among these are some large buildings.

“If we were once out, there would not be much chance of our being detected, if we had something to put over our uniforms; but, of course, they would betray us to the first man we met.”

“Yes, of course,” O’Sullivan said; “but we might possibly obtain plain clothes at one of those small houses you speak of, though that would be risky.”

“We might leave our coatees behind us, and go only in our shirts and breeches; and give out that we had been attacked, and robbed of our money and coats by footpads,” Desmond said.

“That is a good idea,” O’Neil agreed.  “Yes, that might do, especially as, after dark, they would not be likely to notice that our breeches were of a French cut.”

“But it seems to me that we are beginning at the wrong end of the business.  It is of no use discussing what we are to do, when we escape, till we have settled upon the manner in which we are to get out.  Let us talk over that first.

“Are the bars firmly in, O’Neil?”

O’Neil tried, with all his strength, to shake them.

“They are as firm as the walls,” he said.  “There is no getting them out, unless we have tools to cut away all the stonework round them.”

“I suppose there is no chance of cutting through them?” O’Sullivan asked.