But this conclusion was not arrived at without many objurgations and loud-sounding phrases hurled at this Robur--who, from what had been seen of him at the Weldon Institute, was not the sort of man to trouble himself much about them.
Suddenly Frycollin began to give unequivocal signs of being unwell.
He began to writhe in a most lamentable fashion, either with cramp in his stomach or in his limbs; and Uncle Prudent, thinking it his duty to put an end to these gymnastics, cut the cords that bound him.
He had cause to be sorry for it.

Immediately there was poured forth an interminable litany, in which the terrors of fear were mingled with the tortures of hunger.

Frycollin was no worse in his brain than in his stomach, and it would have been difficult to decide to which organ the chief cause of the trouble should be assigned.
"Frycollin!" said Uncle Prudent.
"Master Uncle! Master Uncle!" answered the Negro between two of his lugubrious howls.
"It is possible that we are doomed to die of hunger in this prison, but we have made up our minds not to succumb until we have availed ourselves of every means of alimentation to prolong our lives." "To eat me ?" exclaimed Frycollin.
"As is always done with a Negro under such circumstances! So you had better not make yourself too obvious--" "Or you'll have your bones picked!" said Evans.
And as Frycollin saw he might be used to prolong two existences more precious than his own, he contented himself thenceforth with groaning in quiet.
The time went on and all attempts to force the door or get through the wall proved fruitless.

What the wall was made of was impossible to say.

It was not metal; it was not wood; it was not stone, And all the cell seemed to be made of the same stuff.