Surely through no fault of yours, I have had no word from home since May. It might be worth a try to write me at the old address at Hilton Head, hoping that when the Colonel learns our whereabouts our mail will be forwarded here. I have heard of mail being taken to prisons by way of Port Royal Ferry. The Rebels are often kind in such matters, as we have some of their boys too. My health is good and I am cheered by the presence of my friend Lieutenant Kelly. I have mentioned him in other letters. Of course I am hoping we may be exchanged, but we have no word of the chances for that. If you can send a box, I know that books will be a special want, and paper and pencils and a change of underclothes. I have some money but more would be useful, if it can be spared. I don’t know if a sutler comes to this jail, but I imagine that things can be bought somehow. I long to see your faces more than ever now. Love to the twins, and when you see Kate in church ask her to send that long-awaited photograph. Your loving son, TIMOTHY BRADFORD _Lieut. 7th Ct._ He folded the letter and put it, with the billfold and remaining sheet of writing paper, back into his pocket. He measured the pencil stub between his thumb and forefinger, and shook his head. He slipped it into his pocket. He got up from the floor and looked out the window again, this time with unseeing eyes. He turned from the window and paced along the wall and back again. Now that the letter was finished he was tortured by a feeling of suffocation. He wanted to send it on its way right now, or better still, deliver it himself. CHAPTER TEN As Tim finished his game with Red they heard the familiar rattle of keys and the sound of the lower door. “There’s Bull Head,” said Red, “coming to take us to the yard.” Tim swept the chessmen off the board and set them on the mantle. They had been in the jail for nearly five months now. After a week or so they had been joined by the officers captured in the second attempt to take Fort Wagner. This room where they had first been imprisoned wasn’t used for sleeping now. The Army prisoners had been given the run of the second floor, and this had been kept as a sort of common room. They had thought of escape almost constantly, but they hadn’t found a plan that was good enough. If they worked together they might overpower the guards, but the hue and cry would come too soon. Some might escape but some would surely lose their lives. Prisoners went outside under guard every day, but they were carefully watched. An open wagon came into the yard several times a week bringing food, but it went out empty. There was no place to hide on the wagon.