"Or attempt to follow our example, and spoil the pie by a superfluous
plum!" added Augustus. "You counsel admirably; and one of these days, if
you are not hung in the mean while, will, I venture to auger, be a great
logician."

The next morning was clear and frosty; but the day after was, to use
Tomlinson's simile, "as dark as if all the negroes of Africa had been
stewed down into air." "You might have cut the fog with a knife," as the
proverb says. Paul and Augustus could not even see how significantly
each looked at the other.

It was a remarkable trait of the daring temperament of the former, that,
young as he was, it was fixed that he should lead the attempt. At the
hour, then, for chapel the prisoners passed as usual through the door.
When it came to Paul's turn he drew himself by his hands to the pipe, and
then creeping along its sinuous course, gained the wall before he had
even fetched his breath. Rather more clumsily, Augustus followed his
friend's example. Once his foot slipped, and he was all but over. He
extended his hands involuntarily, and caught Paul by the leg. Happily
our hero had then gained the wall, to which he was clinging; and for once
in a way, one rogue raised himself without throwing over another. Behold
Tomlinson and Paul now seated for an instant on the wall to recover
breath; the latter then,--the descent to the ground was not very great,
--letting his body down by his hands, dropped into the garden.

"Hurt?" asked the prudent Augustus, in a hoarse whisper, before he
descended from his "bad eminence," being even willing--

"To bear those ills he had,
Than fly to others that he knew not of"