'Now get up, both of you. We need the bench-- it'll be handy after all. It's going to work as a ramp, just as Klaus said.'
Violet placed the loaf of bread up against the wall, directly under the barred window, and then tilted the bench toward the same spot. 'We're going to pour the pitcher of water so it runs down the bench, and hits the wall,' she said. 'Then it'll run down the wall to the bread, which will act like a sponge and soak up the water. Then we'll squeeze the bread so the water goes into the pitcher, and start over.'
'But what will that do?' Klaus asked.
'The walls of this cell are made of bricks,' Violet said, 'with mortar between the bricks to keep them together. Mortar is a type of clay that hardens like glue, so a mortar-dissolver would loosen the bricks and allow us to escape. I think we can dissolve the mortar by pouring water on it.'
'But how?' Klaus asked. 'The walls are so solid, and water is so gentle.'
'Water is one of the most powerful forces on earth,' Violet replied. 'Ocean waves can wear away at cliffs made of stone.'
'Donax!' Sunny said, which meant something like, 'But that takes years and years, and if we don't escape, we'll be burned at the stake tomorrow afternoon.'
'Then we'd better stop entertaining the notion, and start pouring the water,' Violet said. 'We'll have to keep it up all night if we want to dissolve the mortar. I'll stand at this end, propping up the bench. Klaus, you stand next to me and pour the water. Sunny, you stand near the bread, and bring it back to me when it's soaked up all the water. Ready?'
Klaus took the pitcher in his hands and held it up to the end of the bench. Sunny crawled over to the loaf of bread, which was only a little bit shorter than she was. 'Ready!' the two younger Baudelaires said in unison, and together the three children began to operate Violet's mortar-dissolver. The water ran down the bench and hit the wall, and then ran down the wall and was soaked up in the spongy bread. Sunny quickly brought the bread to Klaus, who squeezed it into the pitcher, and the entire process began again. At first, it seemed as if the Baudelaires were barking up the wrong tree, because the water seemed to have no more effect against the wall of the Deluxe Cell than a silk scarf would have against a charging rhinoceros, but it soon became clear that water — unlike a silk scarf — is indeed one of the most powerful forces on earth. By the time the Baudelaires heard the flapping of the V.F.D. crows as they flew in a circle before heading downtown for their afternoon roost, the mortar between the bricks was slightly mushy to the touch, and by the time the last few rays of the sun were shining through the tiny barred window, quite a bit of the mortar had actually begun to wear away.
'Grespo,' Sunny said, which meant something like, 'Quite a bit of the mortar has actually begun to wear away.'
'That's good news,' Klaus said. 'If your invention saves our lives, Violet, it will be the best birthday present you've ever given me, including that book of Finnish poetry you bought me when I turned eight.'
Violet yawned. 'Speaking of poetry, why don't we talk about Isadora Quagmire's couplets? We still haven't figured out where the triplets are hidden, and besides, if we keep talking it'll be easier to stay awake.'
'Good idea,' Klaus said, and recited the poems from memory:
The Baudelaires listened to the poems and began to entertain every notion they could think of that might help them figure out what the couplets meant. Violet held the bench in place, but her mind was on why the first poem began 'For sapphires we are held in here,' when the Baudelaires already knew about the Quagmire fortune. Klaus poured the water out of the pitcher and let it run down to the wall, but his mind was on the part of the poem that said 'The first thing you read contains the clue,' and what exactly Isadora meant by 'the clue.' Sunny monitored the loaf of bread as it soaked up the water again and again, but her mind was on the last line of the last poem they had received, and what 'An initial way to speak to you' could mean. The three Baudelaires operated Violet's invention until morning, discussing Isadora's couplets the entire time, and although the children made quite a lot of progress dissolving the mortar in the cell wall, they made no progress figuring out Isadora's poems.
'Water might be one of the most powerful forces on earth,' Violet said, as the children heard the first sounds of the V.F.D. crows arriving for their uptown roost, 'but poetry might be the most confusing. We've talked and talked, and we still don't know where the Quagmires are hiding.'
'We need another dose of deus ex machina ' Klaus said. 'If something helpful doesn't arrive soon, we won't be able to rescue our friends even if we do escape from this cell.'
'Psst!' came an unexpected voice from the window, startling the children so much that they almost dropped everything and wrecked the mortar-dissolver. The Baudelaires looked up and saw the faint shape of somebody's face behind the bars of the window. 'Psst! Baudelaires!' the voice whispered.
'Who is it?' Violet whispered back. 'We can't see you.'
'It's Hector,' Hector whispered. 'I'm supposed to be downtown doing the morning chores, but I sneaked over here instead.'
'Can you get us out of here?' Klaus whispered.
For a few seconds, the children heard nothing but the sounds of the V.F.D. crows muttering and splashing in Fowl Fountain. Then Hector sighed. 'No,' he admitted. 'Officer Luciana has the only key, and this jail is made of solid brick. I don't think there's a way I can get you out.'
'Dala?' Sunny asked.
'My sister means, did you tell the Council of Elders that we were with you the night Jacques was murdered, so we couldn't have committed the crime?'
There was another pause. 'No,' Hector said. 'You know that the Council makes me too skittish to talk. I wanted to speak up for you when Detective Dupin was accusing you, but one look at those crow hats and I couldn't open my mouth. But I thought of one thing I can do to help.'
Klaus put down the pitcher of water and felt the mortar on the far wall. Violet's invention seemed to be working quite well, but there was still no guarantee that it would get them out of there before the mob of citizens arrived in the afternoon. 'What's that?' he asked Hector.
'I'm going to get the self-sustaining hot air mobile home ready to go,' he said. 'I'll wait at the barn all afternoon, and if you somehow manage to escape, you can float away with me '
'O.K.,' Violet said, although she had been hoping for something a little more helpful from a fully grown adult. 'We're trying to break out of this cell right now, so maybe we'll make it.'
'Well, if you're breaking out now, I'd better go,' Hector said. 'I don't want to get in trouble. I just want to say that if you don't make it and you are burned at the stake, it was very nice making your acquaintance. Oh — I almost forgot.'
Hector's fingers reached through the bars and dropped a rolled scrap of paper down to the waiting Baudelaires. 'It's another couplet,' he said. 'It doesn't make sense to me, but maybe you'll find it helpful. Good- bye, children. I do hope I see you later.'
'Good-bye, Hector,' Violet said glumly. 'I hope so too.'
''Bye,' Sunny muttered.
Hector waited for a second, expecting Klaus say good-bye, but then walked off without another word, his footsteps fading into the sounds of the muttering, splashing crows. Violet and Sunny turned to look at their brother, surprised that he had not said good-bye, although Hector's visit had been such a disappointment that they could understand if Klaus was too annoyed to be polite. But when they looked at the middle Baudelaire, he did not look annoyed. Klaus was looking at the latest couplet from Isadora, and in the growing light of the Deluxe Cell his sisters could see a wide grin on his face. Grinning is something you do when you are entertained in some way, such as reading a good book or watching someone you don't care for spill orange soda all over himself. But there weren't any books in the uptown jail, and the Baudelaires had been careful not to spill a drop of the water as they operated the mortar-dissolver, so the Baudelaire sisters knew that their brother was grinning for another reason.
L He was grinning because he was entertaining a notion, and as Klaus showed them the poem he was holding, Violet and Sunny had a very good idea of what notion it was.
