The Ultimate Experiment! Escaped from Bales Prison in seven days

He was born into a wealthy family in the United States, and his wealth made it unnecessary for him to go out and run for his life. He looks Sven and is taciturn, but has a strong logical thinking, imagination and judgment. His greatest wish is to be able to encounter incredible events every day, and the thing he hates most is that his brain is blank, and there is nothing worth thinking about. His name is James. Keane. He famously said that the human brain is born to think, and the brain that cannot think is no different from a pig.

1、

Of all the prisons, Bales Prison is the most famous prison, because since its construction, no prisoner has been able to escape successfully. Bales Prison is a wide and sprawling granite building with four floors. The building is surrounded by an eighteen-foot-high granite wall, so smooth inside and out that even a master climber cannot climb it with bare hands. At the top of the wall is also a fence made of five feet of sharp steel bars. This wall is the insurmountable boundary between free men and prisoners, and even if anyone can escape from the cell, it is impossible to cross it.

"I still say that as long as I want to escape, there is no prison in this world that can hold me, including Bales Prison." Keane said lightly.

"What if everything were as simple as talking big?" His friend Bill taunted.

"I agree with Bill, if you can really escape from the famous Bales Prison, Bill and I will change into women's clothes and dance for you, haha," said another of his friends, George, with a laugh.

Bill and George are much older than Keane, they are both decent people, with their own business and power, somehow, these two people always like to get together with Keane, who is much younger than themselves, and they only feel the dullness and monotony of life when they are with Keane.

At this point, the three of them were arguing about the matter, and it would be ridiculous to ask Keane to escape from prison, but Keane insisted and said that he was willing to go to prison to prove his theory, so the matter was settled.

Saying that it is an experiment is actually not a very simple thing. Before the experiment could actually begin, there were legal and procedural things to be arranged, such as the need to obtain permission from the city government and The Bells Prison. However, all three of them were quite famous and influential people, and after some consultation, they finally got the consent of the various parties in the name of testing the prison system.

After confirming his imprisonment, Keane prepared what he was allowed to bring with him when he went to prison: shoes, socks, pants, and a top. Then he called the maid and housekeeper over and ordered, "Now I am going out to do something, and today, a week later, at nine o'clock in the evening, these two gentlemen, and probably one or two other guests, will have dinner here, and I will ask you to arrange it." ”

2、

After confessing to the butler, Keane and two other friends drove to Bells Prison. The warden had long since received the order to be ready to wait for them.

He was ordered to treat Keane as a real prisoner and to watch over him for a week, and to make sure that he must not be allowed to escape, as it concerned the reputation of Bales Prison.

After entering the prison, the warden called in guards to search Keane, his pants pocket was emptied, his white shirt had no pockets, so he took off his shoes and socks for examination before putting them on. The search was over, and Keane had nothing on him.

Then Keane suddenly said, "I have three requests, and it is up to you to decide whether you can approve them or not." ”

"You can't ask for a special license." Bill said slyly.

"I'm not going to overstepped my demands." Keane said firmly, "I just want some brush powder, a five-dollar and two ten-dollar bills." ”

Hearing Keane's request, Bill, George, and the warden exchanged a surprised look. It's understandable to ask for brushing powder, but what's the use of three bills? They were all confused.

"Do any of your guards have anyone who can be bought off for twenty-five dollars?" Bill asked the warden.

"Even twenty-five thousand dollars can't buy them!" The warden answered.

"Well, just give him these things," george said, "and I don't see anything wrong with it." ”

"What about your third request?" Bill asked.

"I asked to polish my shoes." Keane said.

The three exchanged surprised glances again. Although this request was a bit bizarre, they thought about it for a while, and polishing their shoes didn't seem to affect anything, so they immediately agreed. While arranging for someone to buy toothbrush and polish his shoes, the warden took Keane into one of the prison cells.

"This is Cell Thirteen," said the warden after leading them through three doors, "and where we hold death row inmates, no one can come out without my permission." The prisoners locked up here are also not allowed to contact the outside world, and I guarantee the safety of this place in my honor. In particular, it was only three doors away from my office, and I could hear any unusual noises. ”

"Are you satisfied with this cell?" Keane asked Bill and George in a sarcastic tone.

"I'm so satisfied, I hope to see you in a week's time," the duo said happily.

So the heavy iron door was pulled open, and Keane walked into the dimly lit cell. Then the iron door closed, and the warden added two locks to the door. At this time, a small and urgent running sound came out.

"What's that sound?" Bill stood outside the gate and asked.

"Rats, dozens of rats." Keane said mockingly.

There was a clearing about twenty-five feet wide between the cell and the wall, which was a place where prisoners who were allowed to move freely during the day were allowed to move, but the prisoners living in Cell Thirteen did not have this right. Four armed guards patrolled the open space day and night, each responsible for a corner of the clearing.

In every corner around the clearing, there was a huge arc of light that was erected high, and at night it kept shooting in all directions, so that at night these clearings were almost as bright as during the day. Each guard had a clear view of all corners of the clearing.

Keane had a clear understanding of the security facilities before he went to prison, but now he could only look out through the small windows with steel bars above his cell.

Looking at it, the night passed and the early morning came. It was his first morning after he was in prison. He saw a water bird flying in the sky, and he could faintly hear the motor of the boat. So he guessed that the river was not far from the wall. From the same direction came the shouts of the boys as they played. He knew that between the wall and the river, there must be a clearing where he could play.

Bales Prison is considered the most unbreakable prison, and no one has ever escaped from it. Keane lay on the bed and looked around, guessing that the walls of the cell had been built twenty years earlier, old, but still very strong; the steel bars on the windows were probably newly installed, with not a trace of rust at all; the windows were not large, and it was quite difficult to remove the steel bars and drill them out.

The solidity of the walls and the narrowness of the windows did not discourage Keane; instead, he squinted his eyes and looked closely at the huge arc lamp. Now that the sun was shining outside, he could clearly see a wire connecting the arc light to the prison building. He speculated that the wire was on the wall not far from the cell. Keane thinks finding the location of the wires might help him escape from prison.

Keane got tired of looking at the window and turned his attention back. Cell Thirteen is neither in the basement nor on the upper floors, and it is on the first floor like the prison office. Keane remembers coming in, walking up four stone steps to reach the warden's office, so the floor of the cell might have been only three or four feet above the surface. He couldn't see from the window the ground close to the outer wall of Cell Thirteen, but if he looked further away, he could see the ground beneath the prison's outer wall—so jumping from the window to the ground should be easy.

Then Keane thought carefully about what he had seen when he came in, and what facilities were outside Cell Thirteen.

First of all, there is a guard booth built inside the wall of the prison, and there are two heavy iron gates on the pavilion, and there are guards on duty at all times. He first passed through a door, confirmed his identity, and then with the permission of the warden, the second door was opened to let them enter the prison. The warden's office is in the main building of the prison, and to enter the prison director's office from the outdoor open space, you have to go through a heavy door made of all steel, and there is a peephole in the door, and the people in the office can see the outside without opening the door. If you want to go from the warden's office to Cell Thirteen, you must first enter the corridor through a wooden door and two iron doors, and when you reach the corridor, it is the door of Cell Thirteen, but there are two locks on the door.

Keane recalculated that from cell thirteen where he was now, he had to go through seven doors before he could go outside and become a free man. Of course, if he wants to go out, the important problem is not the doors. Because he is not always alone, the prison guards will bring breakfast at six o'clock in the morning, lunch at noon, dinner at six o'clock in the evening, and someone will come to tour the house once at nine o'clock in the evening.

And it wasn't just a matter of doors and patrols, there was nothing in this cell except an iron bed. The iron bed was still very strong, and unless the hammer was struck hard or filed with a file, it could not be dismantled at all—keane without any tools could certainly not be opened. There are also no chairs, tables, tin or clay utensils in the room. Even when he was eating, the prison guard stood outside the door and watched, and after eating, he took back the wooden basin containing the meal.

"The prison's surveillance system is well organized," Keane had to praise in his heart.

After the compliments, Keane considered all of the above and then carefully examined his cell again. He climbed into bed, starting from the ceiling to the surrounding walls, and he looked at each brick and the cement in the middle of the brick, and found no loosening of the bricks. So he stomped his feet around the floor repeatedly, and found that the floor was a solid cement floor.

After the examination, he sat down on the iron bed and began a long meditation. What a joy it was for Keane to find something worth thinking about!

Suddenly, a rat ran over the instep of his foot, interrupting his contemplation. He saw the rat run into a dark corner of the cell and disappear. Keane narrowed his eyes to look closely at the place where the rat had disappeared, and saw many small eyeballs peering into him in the darkness. He counted, and there were six pairs, and if there were more he wouldn't be able to see clearly.

Keane was still sitting on the bed, but he found a two-inch-high gap between the cell's gate and the ground. He stared at the gap, and his body suddenly approached the corner with the rats. There was a faint sound of running in the corner, and the frightened screams of some rats, and the sound disappeared after a while.

He could see clearly that the rats had not run out of the gap under the door, but were all gone. There must be a way out of this cell, though it may be just a small hole. Keane didn't hesitate and immediately lay down on the ground searching, groping his slender fingers in the dark corners.

Finally, he found a gap in the corner, a round hole slightly larger than a dollar of silver coins, from which the rats ran out. He stuck his finger into the little hole, which looked like an abandoned drain pipe, dry and dusty inside.

Satisfied with the discovery, he sat back on his bed and pondered for over an hour, then again observed the situation outside through the small window. Just then the guard on the outer wall looked over and saw Keane's head appear at the window of Cell Thirteen, but Keane didn't see the guard.

3、

At noon, the prison guards brought an obnoxious and tasteless prison meal. Usually at home, Keane has no requirements for meals, although the prison meal tastes very bad, and he eats it without saying a word. During the meal, he also talked to the prison guards who were waiting outside the cell door and staring at him.

"Has this place changed anything over the last few years?" he asked.

"Nothing," replied the guards, knowing that he was not really a prisoner, and replied kindly, "four years ago a new wall was built. ”

"What about the cell itself?"

"The wooden walls outside the cell have been repainted, and we renovated the sewer system seven years ago."

"Oh!" Keane asked, "How far is the river from here?" ”

"It's about three hundred feet." There is a baseball field for children between the façade and the river. At this point, the guard showed a wary expression on his face, and Keane saw it and did not ask any more questions.

Keane finished his meal, and when the guards packed up to leave, Keane asked if he could give him some water. "I'm thirsty easily," he explained, "can you leave me a small basin of water?" ”

"I'm going to ask the warden." The prison guard did not dare to make a decision on his own, answered and walked away.

Half an hour later, the guards returned with a small wooden basin filled with water. "The warden said you could leave this basin behind," the guards said to him, "but I'm going to check this little basin from time to time, and if it's broken, you won't want to make any more demands." ”

"Thank you," Keane said with a smile, "I'm not going to break it." ”

The prison guard nodded and continued the patrol. Two hours later, as he passed Cell Thirteen again, he heard a strange noise coming from the cell. He stopped and saw Keane lying in the corner of his cell, where there were several screams of horror.

"Ha, I got you!" He heard Keane cry out happily.

"What did you catch?" he asked.

"A rat," Keane replied, and stood up and walked to the door and said to the guards, "you see. ”

The prison guard saw the thinking machine clamp a small gray rat that was still struggling with its fingers, and after clamping it, he held the mouse to the door and looked at the light.

"This is a vole." Keane said.

"Don't you have anything else to do but catch rats?" The prison guard was a little annoyed and asked him. "There shouldn't have been rats in this place," Keane said plainly, "take it away and kill it." There are a lot of them inside. ”

The prison guard frowned and took the twisted and squirming rat and slammed it the floor, and the rat screamed and did not move. Keane said nothing, and the guards left. Then he reported the incident to the warden, who smiled and was silent.

That afternoon, the gun guards outside Cell Thirteen saw Keane looking out the window. Then he saw a hand sticking out of the window, and a white thing floated down and fell to the ground outside the window of Cell Thirteen. He walked over and picked it up and found it a five-dollar bill, tied in a lump of rag torn from his white blouse. But when he looked at the window again, the face was gone.

The guard smiled coldly and delivered the rags and the five-dollar bill to the warden's office. In the office, the warden took the matter seriously. He followed the guards to examine what Keane had thrown out, and found that the outer layer of the rag was written in ink, although it was a little vague, but it was faintly recognizable, "Finder please give it to George."

"Ah," said the warden with a laugh, "the escape plan number one failed. Then he thought for a moment and said, "But why did he give it to George?" ”

"And where did he find ink and pen to write?" The guards were also strange.

The warden looked at the guard, who looked back at the warden, and both shook their heads.

"Well, let's see what he wants to tell George." The warden unfolded the rolled rags and then whispered in surprise, "Ah, ah, what?" What do you see here? ”

The guards leaned over, and it turned out that the rag piece had a strange sentence written on it, "EpacseotdnetniiyawehttonsisihT."

The warden spent an hour guessing the meaning of the characters. The warden also spent some time figuring out where Keane got the writing instrument from and what kind of ink he was using. To figure this out, he spread out the rag again for inspection. The cloth was apparently torn from the white shirt, and the edges were uneven.

The source of the cloth was clear, and the warden knew that Skeane could not have obtained an ink pen or pencil, and that the words on the cloth did not look like they were written with an ink pen or pencil. So what exactly Keane used to write is still a mystery.

The warden intends to find out for himself. Keane was his prisoner, and it was his duty not to let the prisoner escape, and if the prisoner wanted to send some special message to someone else to help him escape, he must find out the meaning of the message and the channels through which it was transmitted, so that it could be stopped in time, just as he would against other ordinary prisoners.

Thinking of this, the warden came to the door of Cell Thirteen, and he looked through the small window on the door and found Keane lying on the ground, intently catching rats. Keane turned his back on the door, but as soon as he heard the warden's footsteps, he jumped up.

"What a shame," Keane said angrily, "that there are so many rats in a prison so well-managed!" ”

"The other inmates never complained," said the warden, "and I brought you a shirt and took off your clothes for me." ”

"Why?" Keane immediately asked rhetorically. His tone was a little unnatural, as if he were a little uneasy.

"You want to send a letter to George." The warden said solemnly, "You are my prisoner, and I have the right to prevent you from doing so." ”

Keane was silent for a long time. "Well," he said at last, "just do what you have to do." ”

The warden laughed. The prisoner took off his white shirt and changed into the ordinary prison clothes brought by the warden. The warden scrutinized Keane's shirt, comparing the place where it was torn to that rag from time to time.

Keane watched curiously and then asked, "Did the guard give it to you?" ”

"Yes," said the warden triumphantly, "your escape plan number one has failed. The warden smiled with satisfaction when he found that the shape of the place where the white shirt had been torn coincided with the rag.

"What did you write it with?" The warden asked.

"I think it's your own business to find out."

The warden carefully inspected the cell, but found nothing, not even a matchstick or toothpick that could replace a pen. What ink Keane used remains a mystery. The warden was reluctant when he left Cell Thirteen, but at least he had some comfort in getting his torn shirt as a trophy.

"Hmm, just play the little trick of writing on the cloth, don't try to escape!" The warden said smugly. He put the rag in the drawer of his desk to see what would happen next.

4、

On the third day after his imprisonment, Keane became more and more disagreeable, and he went so far as to publicly bribe the prison guards.

The prison guard brought him dinner, and was leaning against the fence waiting for him to finish eating, when he spoke.

"The prison drain leads directly into the river, right?" he asked.

"That's right." Prison guards said.

"I think the pipe is very small."

"It's so small that you can't climb in, if you want to try." The prison guard said mockingly with his teeth outstretched.

Keane stopped talking, ate dinner quietly, and then asked, "You know I'm not a criminal, right?" ”

"I know."

"I can be released at any time if I ask, right?"

"Good value for money"

"When I came in, I was convinced I could escape from here." Keane narrowed his eyes to observe the prison guard's reaction, "Would you like to consider getting paid for it to help me escape?" ”

"I think people like you probably can't stand this kind of prison life." Prison guards said.

"Would you consider helping me escape?" Keane said almost pleadingly.

"No!" The prison guard said impatiently.

"Five hundred," Keane encouraged, "I'm not a criminal. ”

"No!" The prison guards still refused.

"A thousand pieces?"

"No," said the prison guard firmly, "even if you give me ten thousand pieces, I will not be able to help you escape from prison!" You need to go through seven doors, and I only have the keys to two doors. Then he walked away quickly, lest Keane continue to tangle with him. As soon as he left, he reported to the warden what had just happened.

After he reported it to the warden, the warden sneered and said, "The escape plan number two also failed, first by passing the code, followed by bribery." What's next? ”

The prison guard exited the warden's office, and the prison was quiet.

At six o'clock in the evening, the prison guards brought dinner to Cell Thirteen as usual. As he approached, he heard a piercing rustling sound, as if some kind of steel was rubbing against each other. Then the strange noise stopped, as if it had stopped because of the sound of his footsteps. The prison guard, who had been working in the prison for a long time and had a lot of experience, deliberately focused his steps to make footsteps away from Cell Thirteen, but in fact remained in place. After waiting for a while, the rustling sounded again. The prison guards crept outside the cell door and peeked in. He saw Keane standing on the iron bed, leaning against the small window doing something. From the way his arms moved back and forth, it was clear that he was sawing the steel bars on the window with a file.

The prison guard cautiously returned to the office, explained the situation to the warden, and the two men went out the door together and quietly walked to Cell Thirteen. I had just walked to the door of the cell when the sound of sawing steel bars was clearly heard. The warden listened for a while, then suddenly appeared at the door, asked with a smile on his face: "What are you doing?" ”

Keane turned his head from where he was standing and immediately jumped to the ground, anxious to hide what he was holding. The warden went into the cell and held out his hand to him. "Hand it over." The warden said.

"No!" Keane answered desperately.

"Forget it, hand it over," urged the warden, "I really don't want to search your body anymore." ”

"No." Keane still insisted.

"What is it?" File? The warden asked

Keane stared silently at the warden with an expression of extreme disappointment on his face. The warden was a little sympathetic to this guy too. "Plan Three's escape failed, didn't it?" The warden kindly asked, "It sucks, right?" "The prisoner still doesn't make a sound." Search him. "The warden can only give orders.

The guards walked over and searched Keane's body carefully, and finally found a piece of steel about two inches long and bent in the shape of a half moon in the slit of his belt.

"Hmm," the warden took the piece of steel from the guard's hand, "it was brought in in the heel of the shoe." He smiled happily.

The prison guards dutifully continued their search, finding another piece of the same piece of steel on the other side of his belt. The edges of the steel sheet are somewhat worn, and traces of sawn steel bars over the window can be clearly seen.

"It's impossible to saw off a steel bar on a window with something like this." The warden said.

"I can." Keane said firmly.

"It takes six months, possibly." The warden was kind enough to remind him.

The warden and the guards searched the cell again, and even the bed was turned over to check, but nothing was found. The warden stood on the bed and personally examined the steel bars sawn by the prisoners on the windows. When he saw it, he couldn't help but laugh.

"You sawed so hard, it was just a little bit of polishing the steel bar." Then he grabbed the steel bar and shook it vigorously, the steel stripe untouched, still deeply rooted in the solid cement. He tried the other bars one by one, and each one was fine. He jumped out of bed.

The warden and the guards ignored him and walked straight out of the cell. Keane, on the other hand, sat down on the edge of the bed, holding his head in both hands, not knowing what he was thinking.

5、

The next morning at four o'clock the upheaval occurred. A terrible scream resounded throughout the prison. The sound came from a certain cell, and it was a sound of extreme fear and pain. The warden and three guards rushed to the promenade leading to Cell Thirteen.

When they were about to arrive, there was another scream from the cell, and then the voice turned into a wail. The prisoners in the other cells all looked curiously at their respective cells, unaware of what had happened. The warden heard it this time, and the sound seemed to come from the direction of Cell Thirteen.

"It's the idiot in Cell Thirteen again." The warden complained.

The warden had already arrived at the door of Cell Thirteen when a cell guard lit the light, and the warden looked into the cell, where the prisoner in Cell Thirteen was lying comfortably on the bed and snoring with his mouth open. Just as they wanted to go inside to take a closer look, a piercing scream came over them again, coming from upstairs. The warden's face turned pale and he ran upstairs with the others.

It turned out that the place where the sound came from was directly above Cell Thirteen, located on the fourth floor of Cell Forty-Three. Inside there was a prisoner cowering in the corner.

"What?" The warden went to the door of Cell Forty-Three and asked.

"Thank god, you're here." The prisoner rushed to the railing of the cell door and shouted.

"What happened?" The warden asked again, and then he opened the cell door and walked in. So the prisoner immediately fell to his knees and clasped the prison director's leg with his cold hands. His face was pale, his eyes were wide open, and he was shaking incessantly. "Get me out of this cell!" Please let me out! The prisoner pleaded.

"What the hell is going on?" The warden asked again impatiently.

"I heard voices... The voice..." The prisoner looked nervously around the cell.

"What do you hear?"

"I... I can't tell you. The prisoner stammered, followed by hysterical shouts, "Let me get out!" Help me change cells, any one is good, just don't be here! ”

The warden exchanged glances with the three guards and asked, "What crime has this guy been convicted of?" ”

"He said it was for me." The guard explains.

"Even if it's a tip," said the warden, "I have no reason to object to your acceptance—" at this point he fell suddenly silent. He remembered that before Keane entered Cell Thirteen, he had brought with him a five-dollar bill and two ten-dollar bills, for a total of twenty-five dollars. The warden already had a five-dollar bill tied to a rag in his desk, the first time Keane had thrown it out.

But he now receives another five-dollar bill. Supposedly, Keane should only have two ten-dollar bills left. "Maybe I've exchanged money with someone else." The warden sighed and drew conclusions.

Thinking of this, he decided to search Cell Thirteen again from the inside out. If his prisoners could write notes, change bills, and do something unexplained at will, there must be something wrong with the prison. He planned to go to check his room at three o'clock in the middle of the night. Keane must have needed time to engage in his quirky business, and night was the most appropriate time.

At three o'clock in the middle of the night, the warden quietly walked outside the door of Cell Thirteen. He stood outside the cell door first and listened, and there was nothing but Keane's regular breathing. He gently opened the double lock with the key, went into the cell, closed the door again, and slammed the light on the face of the man lying on the bed.

If the warden had tried to scare Keane, he would have been disappointed. Keane simply opened his eyes quietly, reached for his glasses and put them on, and asked in a calm tone, "Who?" ”

Not to mention the warden's search. He searched carefully and carefully, not sparing every inch of space in the room. He found the round hole in the ground, stuck his finger in, and after a while, as if he had touched something, took it out and looked at it under the lamp.

Ha! He cried.

But what he touched was a rat, a dead mouse. Throwing the dead rat aside, he continued to search undeterred. Without a word, Keane stood up and kicked the dead rat into the hallway outside the cell.

Then the warden stood on the bed and shook the steel bar on the window vigorously. Each one is strong. The same goes for the steel bars on the cell doors.

Next, the warden began to examine the clothes worn by the prisoners. Starting with the shoe, there was nothing hidden in the shoe; second, the belt was checked, and the belt did not hide anything; then there was the trouser pocket, from which he took some paper money out of one of the pockets and took it to the light to look closely.

"Five one-dollar bills." He inhaled a cold breath.

"That's right." The prisoner said.

"But... But you only brought in two ten-dollar and five-dollar bills! Why...... How did you do that? The warden asked in a hurried tone.

"That's my business." Keane said.

"Did my subordinates change your banknotes?"

Keane replied without hesitation, "No. ”

"So, you made it yourself?" The warden was already trying to believe that anything was possible.

"That's my business." The prisoner replied the same.

The warden knew very well that the man was fooling him, but he didn't know how to do it, and the warden suddenly turned away and closed the cell door.

The warden went back to his office, and was just about to lie down and rest for a while when the heart-rending scream came over again. He looked at the wall clock, and it was only four tenth. He cursed a few times, re-lit the lantern, and rushed again to the cell on the fourth floor.

The guy was huddled in front of the cell gate fence and shouted. When the warden shone a light on his face, he stopped. "Let me out, let me out," he cried, "I did it, I did it, I killed her." Take it away! ”

"Take something away?" The warden asked.

"I threw strong acid in her face — I did it, I confessed!" Let me get out of this room! The prisoner screamed loudly.

The warden felt that he was really pitiful and released him from his cell. As soon as they entered the corridor, the prisoner was like a frightened little animal, cowering in the corner, covering his ears with his hands. It took him half an hour to calm down, and then he finally told him what had happened.

7、

It turned out that at four o'clock the night he heard a voice, vague, as if it were a sob from the grave. "What does that voice say?" The warden's curiosity was drawn out.

"Acid... sour...... sour! The prisoner stammered, "It accuses me." Strong acid, I poured strong acid into the face of the woman, and the woman died. He shuddered with fear.

"Acid?" The warden asked incomprehensibly.

"Acid. That's what I heard, and it was repeated many times. The voice said something else, but I didn't hear it clearly. ”

"This is what happened last night," the warden asked, "and what happened tonight that scared you like this?" "Still the same word," said the prisoner, "acid ... sour...... sour! "He covered his face with his hands and tried to calm down." I poured acid on her face, but I had no intention of killing her. I heard these, these accusations against my words! He muttered, gradually quieting down.

"This guy is crazy." A prison guard asserted.

"That's right," said the warden, "this guy must be crazy." Then the warden changed his cell, and the matter was over.

On The fifth day of Keane's imprisonment, the warden was exhausted and he hoped the experiment would end soon. Keane had just dropped another rag to the guard outside the window, which read "Only two days left." He also threw away a five-dollar bill.

The warden knew it all too well — the guy who lived in Cell Thirteen didn't have a five-dollar bill! Similarly, he could not have pens, ink, rags! But he did throw these things out. This is all fact, not just theory on paper. Such inexplicable things exhausted the warden.

There was also the terrible and strange "acid" that always haunted his heart. The word didn't seem to have any special meaning, just gibberish by a mad prisoner. But since Keane went to jail, there have been a lot of things that "don't seem to have any special meaning."

On the sixth day, the warden received a letter signed by George and Bill saying that they would come to Bells Prison the day after tomorrow, Thursday night. If Keane hadn't escaped from prison by then, hopefully he would have met him in prison.

"If he hasn't escaped yet?!" The warden laughed coldly, "Escape from prison?! Don't! ”

Similarly, on the sixth day, Keane really kept the warden busy for a while. He sent out three messages, written on rags as usual, related to a Thursday night date. That time had been set by himself when he went to prison.

On the afternoon of the seventh day, the warden walked past Cell Thirteen and glanced inside as he inspected the room. He saw Keane sleeping on an iron bed. Nothing unusual looked out of the cell. The warden vowed that no one would leave the cell between this time— it was now four o'clock in the afternoon — and 8:30 p.m.

Later, at the end of the tour, after walking through Cell Thirteen, the warden heard the sound of people breathing while they were sleeping. He had more eyes and approached the cell door again to observe. Of course he wouldn't do that, of course, but this Keane wasn't an ordinary prisoner.

At six o'clock in the evening, the prison warden called the prison guard and asked, "Is there anything wrong with Cell Thirteen?" ”

"No problem, warden," replied the guards, "but he didn't eat much." ”

Then at seven o'clock in the evening, the warden had a sense of solidity in his heart when he received George and Bill. He was anxious to explain to the two of them one by one the rags he had collected that had happened during this time. There were many things worth talking about, but just as he was about to start speaking, the guards stationed in the area near the river clearing walked into the office.

"The arc lights in the area I'm guarding are out of light." The guard told the warden.

"Damn, that guy is an ominous man," cried the warden angrily, "and everything strange has happened since he went to prison." ”

The guard returned to the dark clearing he was in charge of guarding. The warden called the power company.

"This is Chizheim Prison," he said, "and someone will be sent at once to fix the arc lamp." ”

The other party promised to send someone at once, and the prison director hung up the phone and went to the open space outside the cell to inspect. Bill and George sat in their offices and waited. At this time, the guard at the gate sent a letter delivered by a special person, put it on the desk of the warden, and walked out. George happened to see the sender's address, and when the guard went out, he picked up the envelope and looked at it carefully.

When George saw it, his expression changed and he said, "Keane sent it." ”

"What's going on?" Bill asked. George silently showed the envelope to the other side.

"Coincidence," Bill reassured himself, "must be a coincidence." ”

It was almost eight o'clock in the evening when the warden returned to his office. The people of the power company came in a four-wheeled carriage and prepared to start the repair work.

The warden, who had received the notification, pressed the call button that was connected to the guard on the outer wall. "How many people from the power company came in?" He asked the guard, and the other side of the phone seemed to answer his question, so he said, "Four?" Three technicians in overalls and a foreman? Wearing a coat and a silk hat? Very well, there were only four people to make sure there were going out. Nothing else. ”

Then the warden turned to the two visitors and said, "We have to be more careful here, especially now." There was some irony in his tone. He inadvertently picked up the particularly delivered letter and took it apart. "After reading this letter, I'll explain it to both of you—ah, God!" He suddenly stopped, sat down stunned, unable to move.

"What's wrong?" Bill asked.

"It was a letter from Cell Thirteen," the warden stammered, "an invitation to dinner!" ”

"What?" The two visitors stood up at the same time. Only the warden sat blankly, staring at the envelope for a moment, and then suddenly came back to his senses and shouted at the guards in the corridor: "Go to Cell Thirteen and see if the prisoner is still there!" ”

8、

The guards also returned to their senses and led the order to run out. Before the words could be heard, the call bell to the gate guard rang, and the warden picked up the microphone in a trance, "Hello? Two journalists? Let them in. He turned to the two visitors and said, "He can't run out, he must still be in his cell." ”

It was at this time that the guards sent returned.

"He's still in the cell, the warden," the guard said, "and I saw him lying in bed." ”

"Look, didn't I tell you?" The warden breathed a sigh of relief, "But how did he send the letter?" ”

At this moment, there was a knocking sound from the door leading from the office to the open space outside the cell. "It's the reporters, let them in." The warden gave an explanation to the guards, then turned around and instructed the two visitors, "Please don't talk about this in front of reporters, they always add fuel to the fire when they report on the incident." ”

The guard opened the door and two men came in. "Good night, gentlemen." One of them said. He was a journalist known to the warden, Han Chinsen Hatchy.

"Hello, hello guys!" Another man said easily to the warden, "I'm here." ”

The warden was stunned and couldn't say a word, because the other person was Keane!

Bill and George also looked surprised, and reporter HanChensen Hatchy stood still, looking around.

"You... you...... How? After a while, the warden gasped and asked.

"Go back to your cell." Keane replied. Arriving at Cell Thirteen, Keane stopped and said, "Turn on the lights." ”

So the warden turned on the lights. Cell Thirteen did not appear to be unusual, and Keane was still lying on the iron bed. What a strange thing! Looking at the yellow hair of the man lying on the bed, and then at the person standing next to him, the warden wondered if he was in a dream.

He opened the cell door with trembling hands, and Keane walked in first.

"Look here." Keane said. He kicked the steel bar at the lower end of the cell door, and three of them bent out, and the fourth broke and rolled down the corridor. "And here it is." The "ex-prisoner" said. Then he stood on the iron bed, his hand reaching for the small window to sweep, and the steel bars broke in unison and fell down.

"What's on the bed?" The warden, who was gradually regaining consciousness, asked.

"A wig," Keane replied, then pointed to the bed and said, "Take the quilt away." ”

The warden heard this, and went over to remove the quilt, and under the quilt was a large pile of thick rope, about thirty feet long, and a short sword, three files, ten feet of wire, a steel tong, a thick hammer, and a pistol.

"How did you do that?" The warden asked anxiously.

"Please have dinner with me at 9:30 tonight," Keane said with a smile, "or you'll be late." ”

"But how did you do it?" The warden insisted on asking again.

"For anyone who knows how to use his brain, no prison should try to lock him up," Keane said, "and get off, or you'll be late." ”

Several people came to Keane's house, and Keane squinted at Bill and asked, "Do you believe what I said?" ”

"I believed it." Bill said.

"Do you admit that this is a fair experiment?"

"I admit it."

The others present, especially the warden, were anxiously waiting for him to unravel the mystery.

"Can you tell us—" George opened his mouth.

"Yes, let us know." The warden also said.

Keane pushed his glasses, glanced at his guests for a week, and then began to talk about the beginning and end of his escape.

"Our agreement at the time was that I would go to jail with only some of the necessary clothes and escape from prison within a week," he said. Right? I had never been to Bales Prison before. Before I went to jail, I asked for a box of brush powder, two ten-dollar bills, and a five-dollar bill, and polished my shoes. It doesn't really matter if you refuse, but you all agree.

"I knew of course that there would be nothing left in the cell that would help me escape, so when the warden put me in the cell, I seemed to be alone — unless I could come in handy for three seemingly useless things." These things are innocuous, even death row inmates can bring in, right, warden? ”

"Brushing powder and polished shoes is fine, but banknotes are not allowed." The warden answered.

"In the hands of those who have a heart, anything is dangerous." Keane continued, "On the first night, I didn't do anything but sleep and catch mice. You all thought I was waiting for help from outside, but that wasn't the case. ”

"The next morning at six o'clock, the prison guard brought breakfast, and he told me that the lunch time was twelve o'clock and the dinner time was six o'clock in the evening, which meant that except for these two time periods, the rest was my personal time. So after breakfast I started observing the situation outside the cell from the small window. As soon as I looked, I knew that even if I could escape through the window, I wouldn't be able to climb the wall. So I gave up on that plan.

"However, I found that the river channel was outside the wall, and there was a children's playground between the river channel and the prison. Later conversations with the guards confirmed my speculations. I found it important that anyone could approach the prison walls from that direction without attracting attention.

At the same time, another thing that caught my attention was that the wires that connected the arc lights were about three or four feet away from my window, and I could easily cut those wires if necessary. ”

"Oh, that's how you cut off the power later. And then what? The warden asked.

"Having had enough observation from the window," Keane continued, ignoring the warden's questions, "I began to think about whether I could escape from inside the prison. The easiest way to do that was to go out the same way, so I began to think back to how I got into the cell. But from my cell to the outside, there are seven doors, so I don't think about this path for the time being. Of course, I couldn't dig through the hard granite walls to get out. ”

Keane paused, lit a cigar, and spoke again: "While I was thinking, a mouse ran past the back of my foot. The rat inspired me. There were at least half a dozen rats in the cell, and those small green bean-like eyeballs could be seen in the dark. However, I found that they did not come in through the gap under the cell door. I deliberately frightened them, and the rats didn't escape from under the cell door, but they were gone. Apparently there was a passage inside the cell where they could leave.

"I searched and found the passage. It was an old, discarded sewer pipe, full of dust and silt, from which rats could get in and out, and the pipe would surely go elsewhere. So where exactly does that lead? The sewer drains of any house will generally lead to the outside. Outside the prison is the river, and this pipe is likely to lead to the river or to the river. The rats must have come from that place. Sewer drains are usually made of iron or lead, and there are unlikely to be holes in the middle, so I think the rats got into the cell from the outlet of the tubes.

"When the guards came with lunch, he told me two important things. First, the new sewer system was only rebuilt seven years ago; second, the river was about three hundred feet from the prison. So, I know this pipe belongs to the old sewer system. Next, I need to know if the opening of the pipe is in the river or on land. To identify the problem, I caught a few rats to check on—I was seen by the prison guards when I caught them. You know, these rats entered the cell through the tube, and they were voles, not house mice. Also, the rats I caught were all dry, so I could be sure that the opening of the tube was on land outside the fence. The situation looks good.

"Of course, I know that if I want to continue to work in this direction to find a way out, I will have to turn the warden's attention elsewhere. The warden already knew that the reason I had been in prison was to escape, and he would have been very careful, and my actions would have been more difficult. So I had to use some tricks. ”

"First of all, I gave the impression to the warden that I was going to correspond with people outside. So I tore a strip of cloth from my shirt, wrote some words, tied it to a five-dollar bill, wrote Bill's name on it, and threw it out the window. I knew the guards would definitely give it to the warden, the warden, and did you still have the first rag I sent? ”

The warden took out the rag and asked, "What does it mean?" ”

"Read the letters upside down." Keane said.

The warden read it according to his words. "T-h-i-s, this," he tried a few times, then grinned and read the full sentence out, "Thisisnottheway Iintendtoescape."

"Ha, I didn't expect that." The warden grinned.

"I know it's going to catch your eye," Keane said, "and if you can really read this note, it's a challenge for me." ”

"What tool did you use to write it?" The warden asked curiously.

The "former prisoner" held out his foot. The shoe polish on his shoes in prison had all been scraped off. "Use this. The shoe polish on the shoe is soaked with water, which is my ink; the metal sheet at the top of the lace is the pen. ”

Looking at Keane's shoes, the warden was half admiring and half laughing in relief. He said, "You're incredible, go ahead." ”

"This note prompted the warden to search my cell, as I had hoped." "The warden got into the habit of searching my cell often, but he couldn't find anything every time, and eventually he would get bored until he gave up the job," Keane said. And so he did. ”

"The warden took my white shirt and found two torn spots on my shirt that coincided with the two rags I had sent, and he was overjoyed. But he didn't expect that I would have rolled up another piece of cloth that was nine square inches in size and hid it in my mouth. ”

"Nine square inches of cloth?" The warden asked, "Where did you get it?" ”

"The part of the shirt that is buttoned is three layers of fabric," Keane explains, "and I tore off the innermost layer, leaving only two layers of cloth for you to examine." You sure didn't see it. ”

There was another moment of silence, and the warden smiled a little embarrassed and looked at everyone.

"After satisfying the warden's curiosity, I began to prepare plans to escape." Keane said, "I was convinced, in my own judgment, that the old sewer drain pipe kept leading to the playground outside the wall, and I knew there were many boys playing there, and rats entering my cell from where there were boys." Can I use these conditions to connect with the outside world?

"First of all, I need a long, reliable, solid line. So, look at my feet. He took off his shoes and lifted his trouser cuffs to show them two socks. It turned out that the tough cotton thread at the top of the socks had been removed. "It took a little effort to start undoing the cotton thread, and then it was much smoother. So I had about a quarter-mile of cotton thread.

"Then I wrote something on the cloth — I wrote rather hard, of course — to explain to this gentleman why I was in prison." After saying that, he pointed to HanChensen Hatch, "I know he will help me and he will also get the scoop after the matter is over." I tied the cloth to a ten-dollar bill and wrote on it: 'Give something like this to Hanchensen Hatch, a reporter for the Daily Americana, and you'll be paid an additional ten dollars.' ’

"Next I have to send this letter to the playground outside the fence, hoping to be seen." To that end, I've now become a rat catcher. At that time, I caught a rat, tied the cloth and money tightly to one of its legs, tied cotton thread to its other leg, and put the rat into the entrance of the old water pipe. I think the panicked rat would run all the way outside the water pipe, until it felt safe in the clearing, and then stop and bite the cloth and banknotes.

So I held one end of the cotton thread, and I was upset when the rat ran into the pipe and disappeared. This is actually very risky: the mouse may bite off the cotton thread halfway, other rats may bite the cotton thread halfway through, and even if the cotton thread is not broken, the cloth and banknotes may fall in a place where no one can find it. There are too many situations where things can go wrong. I waited nervously for hours, and when there were still a few feet of cotton thread left in my hand, the cotton thread stopped, and I thought the rat should have run to the end of the water pipe. I told Mr. Hanchensen Hatch of the detailed course of action on the piece of cloth, and the question is, will he see the words on the piece?

"I had to wait. Considering that this plan was likely to fail, I began to prepare other options. I had spoken to the guards and tried to bribe him, so I knew there were seven doors outside, but he only had the keys to two of them. Then I played some tricks to make the warden anxious. I pulled out the steel sheet for the support of the heel of my shoe and pretended to saw the steel bar on the window. The warden was rather annoyed, and by the way, he had developed the habit of shaking the steel fence in my cell often. Of course, there was no problem at all. ”

"The plan has been executed and I can only wait for the result." Keane continued, "I don't know if that note will be found, let alone delivered to its destination. I didn't dare pull the cotton thread back, that was the only way I could connect with the outside world. ”

"When I went to bed that night, I didn't dare to fall asleep, for fear that I didn't notice when Mr. Hatch, who had received the message, pulled the cotton thread. By 3:30 a.m., I finally felt the cotton thread move. There is nothing more gratifying for a prisoner in a death row cell. Keane stopped, turned to the reporter and said, "I think it's up to you to explain." ”

"There was a little boy who was playing baseball in that playground, and he picked up the piece of cloth and brought it to me." Hanchensen Hatch said, "I thought it was newsworthy, so I gave the little boy ten dollars, and the little boy gave me a few rolls of thread, and a lump of cloth tied with thin threads." Mr. Keane instructed me on the cloth to take the little boy to the place where he had found it. Wait until two o'clock in the morning to go to that place, and if you find a cotton thread, gently twitch the first of the line three times, stop once, and then twitch again for a fourth time.

"At two o'clock in the morning, I took a small flashlight and looked for cotton thread in the playground. After about an hour and twenty minutes, I finally found the drainage pipe half-hidden in the weeds, and in the pipe I saw the cotton thread. I pulled the thread as instructed, and soon the other end had a reaction.

"I tied a sturdy twine of linen to the cotton thread, and Mr. Keane began to pull inside. My heart was pounding, afraid that the line would break. Later, the twine was pulled in, and I connected the metal wire at the end of the twine, and after the wire was pulled into the cell, we had a reliable, rat-biting contact line that led from the sewer opening to Cell Thirteen. ”

"You must not make a sound when you do these things," Keane continued, "but when the metal wire is pulled into the cell, I almost scream out with pleasure." Then I dragged Mr. Hatch's prepared tools in with a metal wire. I also tried to use the sewer pipe as a talker, but it didn't work well and he couldn't hear very well. I didn't dare to say it too loudly, for fear of attracting the attention of others. In the end, though, he finally understood the name of the item I had asked him to bring. Because he began to hear the word 'nitric acid' when I said it, I repeated the word 'acid' many times.

"Then I heard screams coming from the upstairs cell, and I thought that this drain might also lead to the upstairs cell, and that someone should have heard what I was saying. So when the warden came over, I quickly pretended to sleep. If the warden had come in to check on it, my whole escape plan would have been in vain, but fortunately the warden had just walked by. Later, I heard from the prison guard that one prisoner had heard what I had said, thought god was speaking to him, and was so frightened that he confessed his crime. ”

"It was also handy for drains to hide things. When you come to check, I will just plug the metal wire into the drain pipe. The warden's fingers were too thick to reach deep into the pipe, so he couldn't touch what I was hiding inside. However, my fingers could reach in, and for safety, I also stuffed a dead rat in the tube as cover, you remember? ”

"I remember." The warden showed a helpless expression.

"I suppose that if the person searching the tube touched a dead rat, he would have thought there was nothing inside and would have stopped." That evening, Mr. Hatch sent some change over, and the other tools he could only deliver the next night.

"I also have to let the guards see me often, so I'll stay at the window for a few hours and let the guards see me." I also deliberately dropped a written cloth in front of him, and I knew he would show it to the warden in order to make the warden suspect that the prison guard might help me escape. Sometimes I also talk to the guards, so I find that there is no full-time electrician in the prison, and if something goes wrong, I have to call the power company outside to send someone over.

"This of course gave me a lot of convenience. On the evening of the last day, when it got dark, I cut the wires outside the window. Cutting a wire is as simple as touching it with an iron rod stained with nitric acid. When the wire breaks, the clearing outside my window becomes pitch black. When the people from the power company came in to look for the cause of the power outage, Mr. Hatch was able to get in.

"Of course, nitric acid is brought in from the drain pipe in a sealed thin bottle, and with the help of nitric acid, it is much easier to break the steel fence on the window and the door, but it takes some time. On the fifth, sixth, and seventh days after I was imprisoned, under the supervision of the guards, I corroded the steel fence with nitric acid and surrounded the bottom of the steel strip with brush powder to prevent nitric acid from leaking out. I knew that the guards always grabbed the upper part of the fence and shook it when checking whether it was strong, so I just did something at the bottom of the fence, and the fence was not completely cut, and on the surface it seemed to be nothing unusual. Keane stopped and was silent for a few minutes.

"I think you all know it," he continued, "and some of the other little tricks I didn't explain were just confusing the warden and the guards." The yellow wig on the bed and the pile of ropes and apparatus had been placed there to match Mr. Hatch, and he said it would be more dramatic. The letter that was delivered by a special person was written in my cell and sent to Mr. Hatch, who sent it to the warden. That,I think that's it. ”

"How did you get out of prison and then come in?" The warden asked.

"It's very simple." Keane said, "I cut the wire of the arc lamp with nitric acid, which I said. I knew it would take a lot of time to find out the cause of the power outage and repair it. When the guard reported to you that the light was broken, I bent the treated steel fence on the window, made some effort to get out of the window, and then broke the steel bar back outside, waiting in the shadows for the technicians of the power company to come over. Mr. Hatch is one of the three technicians.

"When we met, he gave me a set of overalls and a hat worn by a technician. When you— the warden — patrolled the clearing outside my cell, I stood less than ten feet from you. Mr. Hatch and I, disguised as technicians, walked out of the prison gates and pretended to go to the car to get our tools. The gate guard had only let the power company's technician in a few minutes earlier, so there was no doubt, and without looking, let us pass. I changed back into my usual clothes in the car and walked to the prison gate and asked to see the warden. Then we met you. That's it. ”

Guys again

There was silence for a few minutes, and suddenly there was a loud cheer, "Wonderful! "It's amazing!"

At this time, Keane suddenly said to the crowd, "My story is here, please enjoy the dance program carefully prepared for us by my two friends, this is women's clothing, you two hurry up and change it... ”