But I
professed myself well satisfied with the start we had made, and we
handed over our tools to Dilly and Tolliday, the next couple, with
encouraging words.
Chapter 16: Across The Moat.
It would be tedious to chronicle the stages of our progress, the
hopes and fears, the anxieties and suspense, which in turn laid
hold of me. Night by night for a week, in pitch darkness and bitter
cold, we scraped away the cement, carrying away in the morning in
our pockets the dust that fell, and disposing of it in the
sweepings of the courtyard.
Once we had a great scare. In the dead time of night we heard
footsteps, and voices in the room below our dormitory, and gave all
up for lost. We stole into our beds, and lay in that painful state
of shortened breath and quickened pulse which the expectation of
ill induces. But by and by the voices ceased; we heard the closing
of the door below; whatever their errand had been (and we never
knew it) the men of the guard had returned to their quarters, and
after a few minutes' pause we were again out of bed and at our
work.
At the end of a week it happened as I had feared. The men's
patience gave out. The bosun was the first to yield. After his two
hours' spell of labor he rose from the cramped position it entailed
and swore he would do no more. The men whose turn it was to follow
refused to get out of bed, and Joe and I, who, having worked our
spell were fast asleep, knew nothing of the mutiny until the
morning.
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