There were about thirty men standing around him now, who had collected like moths to his torchlight. He turned to them and asked if anyone had made plans of breaking out.
"We have been chosen," one older man said pleadingly.
Nothing sickened Jonathan more than this attitude in people. He’d seen far too much of it his whole life and now he lost his temper.
"Chosen to die”, he began loudly, "rotting away, starving, suffocating in your own stench and about to be torched. Well you’re addressing a priest of ambassador rank and I can illuminate you personally this very minute if you wish. Would you like that?" he said, drawing the gun and pointing it at the man's forehead.
The circle around Jonathan immediately widened. They were staring at him in mute amazement. He realized his emotions were starting to get the better of his reason. He stuffed the gun back in its belt and began berating his audience on their shiftlessness.
"Don't you want to escape?" he pleaded. "How can you accept this treatment? You're to be burned for no other reason than to be made examples, to make others obey insane laws. You have the right to live in your own homes, it’s your birthright. I for one am breaking out of here. How many are going with me?"
Confusion and fear flickered with the torchlight in the looks of those surrounding Jonathan. But one young man now pushed forward and asked, "How can we escape this prison? And even if we did, where would we go?"
More and more people were getting up and crowding around to here this interesting debate. Jonathan handed his torch to Paul's father, who’d been standing at his side all along.
"All we have to do is break down the door tonight and leave. The halls are unguarded. The gates are stationed with blind men. Once we reach the streets we can head for the hills. I doubt that they can follow us there or will even try. Then you can return to your homes. Everything you need is there and I’ll show you how to protect yourselves. The Church is abandoning this whole region. They won't have the time to recapture you. You'll be free, left alone to live out your lives in peace and freedom."
There was no immediate reply. A few people began mumbling to their neighbors.
"Look," said Jonathan in an exasperated tone, "at the choice you have. It’s either escape with me or be burned alive. Have you lost your will to live?" Then he turned to Paul's father, "you'll come with me at least, won't you? I'll take you and your family to the shrine to live with your son. No one will ever find us there."
"Yes, yes, thank you," he replied eagerly.
Now there were louder murmurs from the crowd. The youth who had just spoken broke out, "I'll go." Then others chimed in, in a torrent of voices, as if not to speak up now was to be left behind.
"But some of us can hardly walk," one older man stated.
"Then the strong shall carry the weak," Jonathan replied.
"How can we break through the door?" asked one young man.
"With a bomb, which we’ll make right now," Jonathan told him. "First, let's get organized," he said to the crowd. "I want a few of you to collect all the wood and materials we have here. Take them near the fire. We'll need several more torches made."
Some of the young men quickly dispersed on this business.
"I'll need a few strong arms to help me with the pipe," Jonathan continued. Most of the crowd followed him back to the end wall, curious to know his plan. When he got there he began pulling at the pipe against the wall, and several men beside him took the hint and began helping. In a moment there was twice as much water leaking from the break. Jonathan was surprised that they’d not even thought to do this for themselves when they were all thirsty. Then he began speaking his thoughts out loud as he worked the pipe further from the wall.
"You see," he began, "our oppressors are not competent people. They throw us in a room like this and think it’s a prison, that we'll stay here like so many sheep till they slaughter us. But they have no system. They can't even remember to bring you food and water regularly. I didn't see a single guard in the corridors when I was brought here, and not one armed person anywhere in the temple. And the priests who brought me here didn't even frisk me. That's their worst mistake, as they'll soon find out. I'll teach you how to knock such foolish imposters in the head before I'm through."
The people wondered at this strange speech. By now he had the pipe completely broken off and also crimped a foot back from the break. In another minute he had this short segment in his hands, all he needed to create a pipe bomb. He took this length to the fire and laid out a small board on the ground and knelt before it. The crowd watched him.
Now he took off his shirt and his full ammunition belt. His tools were his knife and the handle of his gun. He beat one end of the pipe shut and the other nearly shut. Then he dried up the moisture inside by heating it and began taking apart bullets, one by one, and filling the pipe with gunpowder. This took some time and while he was at work he instructed one set of men to prepare as many torches as they could, and another group to break up all the remaining pipe into two-foot lengths to serve as weapons. Finally he made a fuse of damp cloth rolled in gunpowder and carefully inserted the wick in his bomb. He still had some twenty bullets left and loaded his gun.
It was already dark outside, but they had a few hours to wait before carrying out their plan. He took this time to instruct and organize his group, asking each person to consider their strength and select some child or invalid to carry. He paced up and down the room making out pairs and he found only thirty people so far gone, or already dead, that he’d have to leave them behind. He had everyone stand up and try to walk, and by this test he gave them a place in his column. Finally he picked out the ten strongest of the group and distributed among them the torches and the bars. Five would lead and guide the column across the square and straight up the widest avenue to the north. The other five would wait with him, once they got outside, and defend the rear.
The bearded man who’d first helped Jonathan up was a native of this city and he was chosen to lead the group through the streets. While they discussed their plan, he suggested they would need food and supplies as soon as they reached the hills, as they were already famished. He also said that he knew of two storehouses they could loot along the way. Jonathan readily agreed to this and formed another group to break into them and carry off what they could while the others kept going. Almost as an afterthought he instructed this squad to carry torches and to set fire to the buildings as they left them. "This will cause confusion in the city," he said, "and light up our way."
