There would, of course, be the chance of his being detected as he got out of the window again at night, but this would not be a great risk.

It was the vigilance of the sentries that he most feared, and the possibility that, as soon as the fact of his being missing was known, a cordon of guards might be stationed outside the wall in addition to those in the yard.

The danger appeared to him to be so great that he was half inclined to abandon the enterprise.

It would certainly be weary work to be shut up there for perhaps a year while his friends were fighting the battles of his country; but it would be better after all to put up with that than to run any extreme risk of being shot.
When he arrived at this conclusion he went upstairs to his room to write a line to Dan.

The day was a fine one, and he found that the whole of the occupants of the room had gone below.