At the same time he was tremulous with a new hope.

"Perhaps I can do it," he said, "and anything will be better than sitting in idleness, with a prospect of being shot at sunrise." Standing on his wooden stool he could easily reach the lower end of the iron bars closing the cell window, and he at once began work on them.
At first he seemed to produce about as much effect as would the gnawing of a mouse, but after a while his tiny saw was buried in the tough iron.

Then footsteps approached, and Ridge had barely time to fling himself on the vile-smelling pallet before a sentry was peering in at the grating.

A ray of light fell where he lay, but fortunately failed to reach the side on which the barred aperture was located.

So the prisoner made a long bunch of the straw, covered it with his coat, and placed his water-jug at one end, thus causing the whole to bear a rude resemblance to a human figure.
After that he worked steadily, only pausing at the sound of footsteps, but not leaving the scene of his operations.