n

in the oak panels and meekly waited
‘or his solitary confinement to end.

After he had spent what the keepers
hought was an instructive session in his
ell, Tommy was allowed to go back to his
Jaily routine. He seemed properly subdued
ind particularly industrious in the machine
hop, which indeed he was.

Stealthily he was fashioning a key. The
‘rying-pan handle was the shank; the chew-
ng gum was model for the rest of it.

occupied. After a quarter of an hour's
work Tommy inserted into the door lo:k
the key he had manufactured.

It was a nervous moment. If the locks
on the different cells were also different,
or if Tommy’s skill had failed him in the

=
=
-

He knew where it would be a good place to put
the ladder against the prison wall.

A week after Tommy’s outbreak of tem-
per came a second one. Again he was placed
in solitary confinement, a different cell this
time.

As soon as he heard the guard’s footsteps
mount to the floor above Tommy got out
his combination frying-pan handle, screw-
driver and key. The screws in the oak

boarding gave him no more trouble than
they did in the door of the first cell he had

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machine shop, all his waiting, planning and
hopes were just so much futility.

The key caught and stuck. What to do?
Was he unfortunate, or was it that the lock
was only stubborn? Should he use force
and risk breaking his precious tool?

Tommy decided to gamble on his skill—
and backed it with force.

The lock yielded with a squeal — and
Tommy was out in the corridor.

He waited till he knew night had come.
From the dark cell block he stole up to the
corridor above. The kitchen quarters were
not guarded at night. He passed through
them to the prison yard.

Tommy knew where a ladder was to be
found, and got it. He knew where there
would be a good place to put it against the
prison wall, took the ladder there, mounted
it and dropped over on the other side of
the wall.

* k *

For two years Tommy Dowd enjoyed
the fruits of freedom. Then the gamble of
the criminal’s life turned against him. In
Bloomington, Ill., he bungled a burglary
and got caught.

He landed in Joliet Prison. This time his
sentence was fifteen years. His reputation,
too, as a prison breaker had grown. The
keepers in Joliet, like those in the Richmond

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Prison, paid Tommy the tribute of special
surveillance.

But they were not unduly worried about
him; or rather they had confidence in the
excellence of Joliet’s facilities for keeping
its prisoners imprisoned. Every part of the
grim structure was as impregnable as it
looked. ~The steel of the bars on windows
and doors was of the best. The guard sys-
tem was highly competent. The keepers
were hard-bitten veterans in their line.

And their chief, Kelly, was the hardest
of them all. He had to be. Joliet was in
the heart of a tough region; the criminals
who made that part of Illinois their stamp-

—

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Page Sixty-three