"Let's leave him to sleep. You also, take a rest, all three of you. But sleep with one eye open. One never can tell... " They withdrew.

Lupin waited a little longer and asked, in a low voice:

"Can I begin?"

"Yes, but be careful. It's not impossible that they may go on a round in an hour or two."

Lupin set to work. He had a very powerful file; and the iron of the bars, rusted and gnawed away by time, was, in places, almost reduced to dust. Twice Lupin stopped to listen, with ears pricked up. But it was only the patter of a rat over the rubbish in the upper story, or the flight of some night-bird; and he continued his task, encouraged by Daubrecq, who stood by the door, ready to warn him at the least alarm.

"Oof!" he said, giving a last stroke of the file. "I'm glad that's over, for, on my word, I've been a bit cramped in this cursed tunnel... to say nothing of the cold... "

He bore with all his strength upon the bar, which he had sawn from below, and succeeded in forcing it down sufficiently for a man's body to slip between the two remaining bars. Next, he had to go back to the end of the embrasure, the wider part, where he had left the rope-ladder. After fixing it to the bars, he called Daubrecq:

"Psst!... It's all right... Are you ready?"

"Yes... coming... One more second, while I listen... All right... They're asleep... give me the ladder."

Lupin lowered it and asked:

"Must I come down?"

"No... . I feel a little weak... but I shall manage.

Indeed, he reached the window of the embrasure pretty quickly and crept along the passage in the wake of his rescuer. The open air, however, seemed to make him giddy. Also, to give himself strength, he had drunk half the bottle of wine; and he had a fainting-fit that kept him lying on the stones of the embrasure for half an hour. Lupin, losing patience, was fastening him to one end of the rope, of which the other end was knotted round the bars and was preparing to let him down like a bale of goods, when Daubrecq woke up, in better condition:

"That's over," he said. "I feel fit now. Will it take long?"

"Pretty long. We are a hundred and fifty yards up."

"How was it that d'Albufex did not foresee that it was possible to escape this way?"

"The cliff is perpendicular."

"And you were able to... "

"Well, your cousins insisted... And then one has to live, you know, and they were free with their money."

"The dear, good souls!" said Daubrecq. "Where are they?"

"Down below, in a boat."

"Is there a river, then?"

"Yes, but we won't talk, if you don't mind. It's dangerous."

"One word more. Had you been there long when you threw me the letter?"

"No, no. A quarter of an hour or so. I'll tell you all about it... Meanwhile, we must hurry."

Lupin went first, after recommending Daubrecq to hold tight to the rope and to come down backward. He would give him a hand at the difficult places.

It took them over forty minutes to reach the platform of the ledge formed by the cliff; and Lupin had several times to help his companion, whose wrists, still bruised from the torture, had lost all their strength and suppleness.