Read Online A Spectacle of Corruption by David Liss - Free Book Online

to saw through. It would take me all night and more, and I had no intention of being in my cell when the sun came up. Instead, I began to chip at the stone around the bars. The metal of the file was strong enough that it did not bend or snap. I used a blanket to muffle the sound as best I could, but the icy crack of metal on stone still echoed through the hallway.
    “What’s that noise?” Nate Lowth asked.
    “I don’t know,” I told him between blows. “I hear it too.”
    “You lying heathen,” he said. “You’re making a break for it, ain’t you?”
    “Of course not. I honor the law above all else. It is my duty to hang if told to do so.” I had now removed an inch or two around one of the bars, and it was considerably loosened, though I could not yet tell how far it descended or how long I would have to continue my labors.
    “You needn’t worry about me,” he said. “I won’t raise the alarm. I told you—I’m of a frame of mind to prefer your not being in attendance for our hanging day.”
    “Well, I hope I
am
absent, but I don’t see it as very likely.”
    “Now I know what all the clanking was for.”
    “You may believe what you like,” I told him. “It does me no harm.”
    “Don’t get sour with a fellow. I’m only making conversation.”
    I gave the bar a good pull, and the stone around the base began to crack. I pulled again, and rotated the bar in a circular motion, widening the area of its encasement. Dust rained from the upper portion, sticking to my hands, which were slick with sweat. I wiped my hands against my breeches and began to apply them once more.
    “You still there, Weaver, or are you gone yet?”
    “I’m still here,” I said, grunting as I spoke. “Where would I go?” I gave the bar a good pull, and the stone at its base cracked fiercely. One or two more yanks, and it would be free.
    “Can you send me something nice once you’re outside? Some wine and oysters.”
    “I’m in here, just like you.”
    “Well, let us say that if you do happen to get out, I’d like you to send me something. After all, I’m not calling the guards, now, am I, as many a man would do for spite. Neither am I threatening you, mind you. I’m just pointing out that I’m a good friend to ye.”
    “Should I find myself outside these walls, I will send wine and oysters.”
    “And a whore,” he said.
    “And a whore.” Another pull. More crumbling.
    “A very eager whore, if you don’t mind.”
    “I will be certain to review the candidates with great care,” I said. “None but the most enthusiastic will meet my approval.” I sucked in my breath and pulled with the sum of my strength. The stone cracked entirely at the base, and I was able to pull the bar free. It was a little more than two feet in length, and I knew what I would do with it.
    “I’ll make like I didn’t hear that noise,” Nate Lowth said.
    I walked over to the fireplace and examined the chimney. It was narrow but, I thought, manageable. “I am going to sleep now,” I shouted to Lowth. “Please, no more conversation.”
    “Sleep soundly, friend,” he said. “And don’t forget my whore.”
    I stooped over and crawled into the fireplace. It was cold and airless inside, and I immediately felt as though my lungs were coated with soot. I ducked out once more and, using the file, tore a piece of blanket from the bed, wrapped it around my nose and mouth, and then, once more, to the chimney.
    Reaching skyward, I found enough of a ledge to grab on to, and I pulled myself up. No more than a foot or two, but still it was progress. The interior was tighter than I had first realized, and moving that little space took an interminable amount of time. My arms were now above me, one of them clutching the bar, and there was no room to lower them. I felt the pressure of stone against my chest, and the sharpness of a jagged edge as it cut through both skin and linen. The bit of blanket I had tied in place to protect my breathing