The whole swift scene of action had taken but a flashing moment to carry out, and so lightning-like had been our movements, so careful above all had we been to gag with our hands the two guards as we grasped them, that no single sound save for a few low-choking gasps had come from them. And then, while with hands over their mouths and with all the strength of our muscles Hilliard and I held the two guards, Macklin and Connell were swiftly stripping their tight-jacketed green uniforms from them. A moment more, and Connell and Macklin were swiftly doffing their own black uniforms of the American Federation and donning the green ones. Now came a restless movement of feet in the corridor without, and with the speed of utter necessity we took the two discarded black uniforms and forced them upon the two guards, holding them still voiceless and powerless. Then, that done, the two guards were as like in their black uniforms as Hilliard and myself; with Connell and Macklin, the latter having been chosen because of the similarity of his appearance to one of the guards, wearing now the guards' green uniforms. And now the very climax of our endeavor was come, that moment upon which depended all, for now, suddenly removing our hands from the lips of the two guards we held, we added our own sudden cries to theirs, and at the same moment Connell and Macklin, in their green uniforms, were engaging in a mock struggle with us and with our guards, whose din seemed terrific there in the quiet upper levels of the great tower! Instantly as those cries arose there was a rush of feet outside and the score of guards there poured down the corridor and through the cell's door, to see four of us in black uniforms struggling apparently with two green-uniformed guards, who were in reality Connell and Macklin. It was the moment upon which all rested, and in that moment the score of guards acted as Hilliard had foreseen, gazing not in that wild moment of frenzied action at faces but at uniforms, seeing only in that first moment in the dusky cell four black-garbed men struggling with two green-garbed ones they had seen enter it but moments before. And, seeing this, they rushed upon us four black-uniformed ones, Hilliard and myself and the guards whom in the guise of aiding in the struggle we had held, and began to beat us back against the cell's end, totally forgetting in that moment the two green-uniformed men they were succoring! And in that moment, as they pressed us back, Connell and Macklin were stealing swiftly out of the cell, and down the corridor toward the hall of the cage-lifts!