That the prison officials should trust a felon to the point of placing in his hands the power to free all his fellows was a cause of wonder to 9009. He wondered when he found that another stripes-clad man was allowed to go on errands to the neighbouring town unattended. And he marvelled at the fewness of the guards. Fifty of the fifteen hundred inmates could have overpowered with ease all the blue-clad guards within sight at one time, were fifty to act in concert.
He watched and wondered, and these were slow months. Without knowing it, he had begun to let his shoulders droop, and he shuffled slightly now when he walked. Amid many of his kind, he moved alone, silently watching. Daily he saw blue-clad guards carrying loaded rifles. He heard each evening heavy bolts fall loudly into sockets. Each morning he woke to the faint taint in the air.
He rose at six to the resounding clang of a gong in the corridor. The rattle of released locks and jerked bolts was followed by the grate
