If he took the melon up to his room he would be sure to find some men there, and would be naturally called upon to divide the fruit; and yet there was nowhere else he could hide it.
For a long time he sat with his back to the wall and the melon beside him, abusing himself for his folly in not having told Dan to send the rope in small lengths that he could hide about him.

The place where he had sat down was one of the quietest in the yard, but men were constantly strolling up and down.

He determined at last that the only possible plan was in the first place to throw his coat over his melon, to tuck it up underneath it, then to get hold of one end of the ball of rope that it doubtless contained and to endeavor to wind it round his body without being observed.

It was a risky business, and he would gladly have tossed the melon over the wall had he dared to do so; for if he were detected, not only would he be punished with much more severe imprisonment, but Dan might be arrested and punished most severely.
Unfortunately the weather was by no means hot, and it would look strange to take off his coat; besides, if he did so, how could he coil the rope round him without being observed?
So that idea was abandoned.

He got up and walked to an angle in the wall, and there sat down again, concealing the melon as well as he could between him and the wall when anyone happened to come near him.