Black humor; Utopian fiction; Utopias -- Fiction; Women -- Fiction
We should have to piece it out from our bedding, rugs, and garments, and
moreover, we should have to do it after we were shut in for the
night, for every day the place was cleaned to perfection by two of our
guardians.
We had no shears, no knives, but Terry was resourceful. “These Jennies
have glass and china, you see. We’ll break a glass from the bathroom and
use that. ‘Love will find out a way,’” he hummed. “When we’re all out of
the window, we’ll stand three-man high and cut the rope as far up as we
can reach, so as to have more for the wall. I know just where I saw
that bit of path below, and there’s a big tree there, too, or a vine or
something--I saw the leaves.”
It seemed a crazy risk to take, but this was, in a way, Terry’s
expedition, and we were all tired of our imprisonment.
So we waited for full moon, retired early, and spent an anxious hour or
two in the unskilled manufacture of man-strong ropes.
To retire into the depths of the closet, muffle a glass in thick cloth,
and break it without noise was not difficult, and broken glass will cut,
though not as deftly as a pair of scissors.
The broad moonlight streamed in through four of our windows--we had not
dared leave our lights on too long--and we worked hard and fast at our
task of destruction.
Hangings, rugs, robes, towels, as well as bed-furniture--even the
mattress covers--we left not one stitch upon another, as Jeff put it.
Then at an end window, as less liable to observation, we fastened one
end of our cable, strongly, to the firm-set hinge of the inner blind,
and dropped our coiled bundle of rope softly over.
“This part’s easy enough--I’ll come last, so as to cut the rope,” said
Terry.
So I slipped down first, and stood, well braced against the wall; then
Jeff on my shoulders, then Terry, who shook us a little as he sawed
through the cord above his head. Then I slowly dropped to the ground,
Jeff following, and at last we all three stood safe in the garden, with
most of our rope with us.
“Good-bye, Grandma!” whispered Terry, under his breath, and we crept
softly toward the wall, taking advantage of the shadow of every bush
and tree. He had been foresighted enough to mark the very spot, only a
scratch of stone on stone, but we could see to read in that light. For
anchorage there was a tough, fair-sized shrub close to the wall.
“Now I’ll climb up on you two again and go over first,” said Terry.
“That’ll hold the rope firm till you both get up on top. Then I’ll go
down to the end. If I can get off safely, you can see me and follow--or,
say, I’ll twitch it three times. If I find there’s absolutely no
footing--why I’ll climb up again, that’s all. I don’t think they’ll kill
us.”
From the top he reconnoitered carefully, waved his hand, and whispered,
“OK,” then slipped over. Jeff climbed up and I followed, and we rather
shivered to see how far down that swaying, wavering figure dropped, hand
under hand, till it disappeared in a mass of foliage far below.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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