Opening the outer door, he tried the inner, but the key did not fit the lock.

Here was a difficulty not entirely unexpected, but seeming to be insurmountable.

He quietly went back to the door of entrance, and as quietly closed it, that no sound of violence might reach and wake the inmates of the house across the road.

Then he returned, and whispered in a low voice to the inmate: "Paul Benedict, give us your benediction." "Jim," responded the man in a whisper, so light that it could reach no ear but his own.
"Don't make no noise, not even if I sh'd make consid'able," said Jim.
Then, grasping the bars with both hands, he gave the door a sudden pull, into which he put all the might of his huge frame.

A thousand pounds would not have measured it, and the door yielded, not at the bolt, but at the hinges.