The boys, while it was still light, carefully inspected the window bars so that they would know just what to do in the dark. They did not place their hands on them, for they did not wish anybody who might be watching outside to observe that the bars were being examined. They found that the rains which had rusted the bars had, of course, run downward, so that the irons, while nearly rusted through at the lower ends, were still very solid at the top. They believed that they would be able to break the bars loose at the bottom, and then to bend them up, in that way making an opening of sufficient size to admit their bodies. After their plan of action was arranged, the boys waited, with as much patience as possible, for the closing-down of night. They could not plan beyond climbing out of the window, for their further action would depend on whether there were any persons abroad in the streets. They hoped that the sky would be clear, so that they would be able to locate the mountains, and not make a mistake in direction. Finally it became dark, and very dark it was, indeed, inside the jail. But they waited what seemed to them a long time after that, to make it probable that all stragglers would have returned home. When they were sure that night was well advanced, they began operations on the window bars, tentatively at first, to see what resistance they would be obliged to overcome. “Let me hang all this plunder over your shoulders, Ray, so as to get it out of the way. I don’t want to put it on the dirty floor.” And Sidney suited the action to the word and disposed of the blanket rolls and knapsacks by turning his brother into a pack-animal. Then he selected the bar which seemed to be thinnest at the lower end, and began to give it quick, sharp jerks, first one way and then the other. At first that assault made very little impression, then the bar began to yield a trifle. Suddenly, with almost no warning, when Sidney gave an especially strenuous pull, the iron snapped in two at the bottom, the upper end dropped out of the hole where it had rested in the masonwork, and the bar fell clattering to the floor. The boys stood rigid with their hearts in their throats. The noise had echoed back from the walls of the empty room until they were sure it must have roused the whole town. They waited, hardly daring to breath, listening for the sound of running feet, and then for the opening of the door and the entrance of guards. Why _hadn’t_ he bribed that man to let them out! Sidney thought, bitterly. That would have been a chance, at least, and after such an alarm, of course, there would be no chance at all.