"You may as well answer," he said. "You will never go out alive
unless you do."
Rupert shook his head.
"I do not admit that I know aught concerning the lady you name; but
did I so, I should prefer death to betraying her."
"Ay," the governor said, "you might do that; but death is very
preferable to life at Loches."
In a day or two Rupert found himself again desponding.
"This will not do," he said earnestly. "I must arouse myself. Let
me think, what have I heard that prisoners do? In the first place
they try to escape; and some have escaped from places as difficult
as Loches. Well, that is one thing to be thought very seriously
about. In the next place, I have heard of their making pets of
spiders and all sorts of things. Well, I may come to that, but at
present I don't like spiders well enough to make pets of them;
besides I don't see any spiders to make pets of. Then some
prisoners have carved walls, but I have no taste for carving.
"I might keep my muscles in order and my health good by exercise
with the chair and table; get to hold them out at arm's length,
lift the table with one hand, and so on. Yes, all sorts of exercise
might be continued in that way, and the more I take exercise the
better I shall sleep at night and enjoy my meals. Yes, with nothing
else to do I might become almost a Samson here.
"There, now my whole time is marked out--escape from prison, and
exercise.
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