He gave the cord a sudden jerk, his heart beating so fast and hard that he could almost hear it. He strained on the cord. It began to stretch and then, with a suddenness that startled him, it broke in the middle. “That wire’s pretty strong,” thought the boy. He repaired the break, went back to the far side of the room, and began to pull steadily on the cord. This time it held and, a few seconds later, with a sudden and loud snap the electric wire broke. For a moment Larry stood in breathless anxiety, waiting to see what would happen. He half feared that, after all, the electric wire might lead to an alarm. But, as the seconds passed, and no one came, Larry realized that the men had been deceiving him. There was no burglar attachment to the window and he could raise it and not be discovered. “I’d better wait until dusk, however,” the boy thought. “They can’t see me so well then.” Several times during the day the men came back to the room. The tall one brought Larry his dinner, but had little to say. The boy had tied the broken wire together, and removed the string, so that no evidences remained of what he had done. He could tell, by the occasional conversation in the room next to him, that the men were still there, and he knew it would not do to try to escape while they were so close. His only hope was that they would go out. And this happened shortly after one of them had brought in a plate of sandwiches and a glass of milk for the prisoner. Larry heard them going down the stairs, and the lad could hardly wait for them to get all the way down, so anxious was he to open the window. Raising the sash proved a harder job than he anticipated and it was quite a feat for even his sturdy muscles. The window had evidently not been opened in some time, and stuck. At last, however, Larry raised it. It was a relief to breathe the fresh air, for the room had been close, but it was better to feel that he had now a chance to get away. Looking cautiously forth from the window Larry could not see anyone. The ground below was deserted. It was quite dusk now, and he resolved to make his attempt. But now that he had the sash up and could look out, a new difficulty presented itself. This was the fact that the fire escape platform was three windows away from the one where Larry was. He did not see how he was to reach it. There was just one way, he figured, but it was so dangerous that he hesitated considerably about taking it. This was to edge along on the window sills until he had reached the platform. Once there it would be easy to get to the ground. But the trip across would be risky. Carefully Larry examined the ledges. They were broad and substantial, and by some chance of architecture the sill of one window nearly met that of the next. One would need to be very careful in edging along the narrow ledge. To a fireman the feat would probably have presented few difficulties, but to an untrained lad it was very great.