ESCAPE FROM STONE ISLAND

[houdinia]

It was well after ‘lights out’, but neither Grant Steinburg nor his cellmate Billy Adams were asleep. Billy was tired alright, but something Grant had said had reeled him back from the Land of Nod.

 

“I’m getting outta here, Billy.”

 

At first Billy thought he was joking. “Sure Grant. You’ve got your own private helicopter on the roof right now, yeah?”

 

There was a moments silence from the upper bunk. “I’m not kidding, Billy. I don’t know exactly how I’m gonna do it yet, but I’m leaving”

 

Billy sat up; he was wide awake now. “You’ve gotta be kidding. No one’s ever escaped from Stone Island. The only way you’ll get out of here is in a box,” he sniggered. “And don’t tell me you’re thinking of playing dead and escaping in a hearse either. Mad Robbie Roberts tried that three years ago. All he got was a bad case of ‘flu from lying on the morgue slab for an hour.” He laughed heartily. It turned into a long chesty wheeze, and he had to bury his face in his grimy handkerchief.

 

When at last he was silent, Grant spoke again. “Sure, laugh, Billy. But you’ll be laughing on the other side of that ugly face of yours when I’m a thousand miles away – living it up with wine, women and song – and you’re still in this cell.”

 

There was no more conversation, but Grant’s words went round and round in Billy’s head. Everyone knew there was no escape from Stone island. But, though Grant had been there only a few weeks, Billy had soon discovered that he was clever… very clever. He still didn’t think escape from The Stone was possible… but if anyone could pull it off, Grant could.

 

Next day at breakfast, Billy and Grant shared a table with Scissors Smith and Black Sandy MacDonald. In earlier life Smith had been a ladies hairdresser, though later he put his skills with a blade to different use. No one knew what Black Sandy had done, but even the guards called him Sir. This morning, however, he seemed unusually cheerful, only glaring and cursing good-naturedly at Scissors when he made the mistake of helping himself to the ketchup before Sandy had emptied it.

 

“You’re in a good mood today, Sandy,” Billy observed.

 

“And why shouldn’t I be? I’m on garden duty again.”

 

“Garden duty?” Scissors said through a mouthful of fried egg. “Nothing grows on Stone Island apart from a few weedy shrubs.”

 

“Exactly”, Sandy said. “And I’ll be lying out in the sun watching them, making sure none of you heavy-footed bastards treads on one.” He glared round the table, but no one dared say anything.

 

“What about you, Scissors?” Billy asked.

 

“Me? Oh, you know. Just another day in paradise. This morning I’m meeting my aromatherapist, then a light lunch at a beachside bistro with a lovely young lady of my acquaintance, followed by a drive round the island’s beauty spots, and a cooling dip in the sea.”

 

Billy sniggered. “Watch out for sharks then. You know how Hopalong Harry got his name.” He nodded towards a thick-set, morose looking individual eating alone in the corner. “Harry thought he’d swim back to the mainland, but he got fifty yards before one of them bit his leg off. Rumour has it, by the time he scrambled back to Stone Island they’d bitten off another appendage as well.”

 

Grant had sat silently through these exchanges, a faraway look in his eye. Now he leaned forward. “Could you drive round the island?” he asked.

 

Billy shrugged. “Maybe, if you had a four-wheeler. But there are no cars here.”

 

“Catch a bus, maybe,” Scissors said. “One every hour.”

 

“You’re a facetious b'stard.” Sandy snarled, leaning forward aggressively. “You’re as likely to see a fairy as a bus on this island.” He glared at Scissors. “Much more likely to see a fairy.”

 

There was an awkward silence. “What are you doing today, Grant?” Billy asked.

 

“Thought I’d walk down to the guard house. Want to come, Billy? Take a morning off the day job?” Billy worked in one of the prison workshops assembling small leather items: darts cases, wallets and so on. The pittance he received paid for a few little luxuries like sweets and cigarettes.

 

“The guard house? I dunno why you want to go there.” Billy shrugged. “Oh sure, what the hell.”

 

A little later the two men were walking towards the island’s guard house at the end of the bridge which was the only way in and out of the island. As usual, it was a warm day with only the softest of breezes. Billy couldn’t remember the last time there had been anything you could rightly call a wind.

 

“You know last night?” Billy began, as soon as they had passed out of earshot of the others. “When you said you’d be leaving The Stone – you were joking, weren’t you?”

 

Grant stared back at him. He continued to walk steadily up the incline. “I never joke, Billy. I thought you’d know that by now.”

 

“Well, how are you going to do it? There’s only one way in or out of this prison and that’s the bridge. And the guard won’t let anyone leave without the proper release papers.”

 

Grant narrowed his lips but he didn’t say anything. Once they were a few hundred yards from the main prison buildings, they turned and looked back. The prison was a squat, sprawling mass of stone. The building rose up from the scrubland like huge, grey boils.

 

“Ugly, isn’t it?” Billy said.

 

“Sure is.” Grant put his hand to his brow to shade his eyes from the sun. He seemed to be looking at the horizon.

 

“I wonder why they built it so flat,” Billy mused.

 

“Why not?” Grant said. “There’s plenty of space, so they could spread out as much as they wanted. And with one-storey buildings, if you throw yourself off the roof, the most you’re likely to do is break an ankle.”

 

“You’ve got all the answers, haven’t you?” Billy said.

 

“Not yet, Billy.” Grant muttered. “But I soon will.”

 

They walked on to the brow of the hill. As they reached it. The bridge to the mainland appeared below them. The bridge was made of steel and concrete and was hardly a thing of beauty – it’s most impressive feature was its length. The far end, where it joined the mainland, was almost invisible through the spray.

 

“How long would it take to walk, do you think?” Grant asked.

 

Billy shrugged. “Half-an-hour at normal pace, I reckon.”

 

They continued a little further, ‘till they could clearly see the guard house on the island side of the bridge. Grant stopped. “That’s far enough,” he said. A few hundred yards away, they could see the guard staring out across the bridge. Even at this distance, the outline of the sub-machine gun at his hip was unmistakable.

 

“His name’s Stan,” Billy said, more to break the silence than anything else. “He’s on duty twenty – four hours a day.”

 

“Sounds like he’s even more of a prisoner than we are,” Grant said. “What kind of man is he?”

 

Billy shrugged. “Tough, no sense of humour, totally dedicated.” A bit like you, Billy thought of saying, but didn’t. An idea occurred to him. “If you’re thinking of trying to bribe Stan, forget it. He may not be too bright but he’s totally incorruptible. The last man who tried spent a fortnight in the hospital wing.”

 

“How about visitors from the mainland?” Billy could see wheels turning in Grant’s brain, thought what answers they might be coming up with billy couldn’t imagine. “How does he treat them?”

 

“He’s polite, businesslike, efficient – as long as they have the right papers of course.”

 

“What if they don’t?”

 

“Then he sends them away. “Billy shrugged. “That’s how it is. No one gets in or out of The Stone without papers. So unless you have a printing press hidden somewhere in the cell, and a supply of the governor’s headed paper…”

 

“I haven’t.”

 

“No.” Billy bit his lip. “I didn’t really think you did.”

 

Grant said no more, and Billy saw that he was staring down at the guard house again, where the tiny figure of Stan was still staring resolutely across the bridge towards the mainland. “Doesn’t he ever take a break?”

 

“Oh, sure. He is human, you know.” Billy grinned. “At ten o’clock in the morning, after he’s finished his paperwork, he goes for a five minute tea break. He knows he can do that because the bridge is two miles long.”

 

Grant’s eyes narrowed. “How’s that again?”

 

Billy preened himself. He was enjoying the unaccustomed experience of being the one with all the answers. “Well, the gate at the far end of the bridge is always open – unless Stan pushes the panic button, of course. So if you could run to the far end during the five minutes he’s supping his Earl Grey, you’d be free.”

 

“Five minutes,” Grant said thoughtfully. “That doesn’t sound impossible for a man who’s in good condition.”

 

“You think so?” Billy was warming to his subject now. “I checked the prison library. The world two-mile record is seven minutes, fifty-eight seconds. If you think you can cut three minutes from that, be my guest.” He waved a hand towards the guard house, where the tiny figure of the guard could be seen moving. “He’s going for his break now. You’ve got exactly five minutes, if you think you’re up to it. But remember, getting half-way or even three-quarters of the way is no good. If he sees you escaping when he comes back from his break, all he has to do is push the button – the gates at the far end of the bridge will close and…”

 

Grant cut him off in mid-flow. “Maybe not today, Billy. But I will. In fact, tomorrow, at 10.37am, I’ll walk through the gate at the far end of that bridge, and be out of this place forever.”

 

Billy heard the news from Scissors Smith, and soon it was all round the prison. Grant Steinburg had escaped exactly as he had promised. Stan, unaware of the escape of one of the prisoners till he was summoned by an angry governor, had been in the guard house at the exact time Grant had walked through the open gates to freedom.

 

Grant had no release papers, or means of transportation, so how did he escape from Stone Island?

 

HOUDINIA

Edited April 1, 2004 by houdinia

[Spike's dream date]

Oh I have no idea. I'm useless at these things but I really wanna know the answer now. When are you going to tell us Houdi?

 

Is it something to do with doping the guard or changing the clock or is this a joke because it's April Fools Day?

[houdinia]

i'm not telling yet. i would add that the first person to solve it was my fellow moderator David Simons!

 

HOUDINIA

[amy_s]

Hmm, I dont know how he got there put am I right in saying he managed to get past the guard by pretending he was a civilian and getting sent away...?

[houdinia]

no, sorry. he didn't gat past the guard by pretending to be a civilian... although you're thinking along the right lines

 

HOUDINIA

[amy_s]

ummm

[vamps!]

Hmmmmmmmm tricksy, let me have a think about it.

[houdinia]

troy and neo worked it out too. kenny cheated and read the answer when i was out.

 

HOUDINIA

[The Lady Elanor]

Hmm, he pretended to be a visitor and got sent out?

[Spike's dream date]

I think that was already suggested Lady E

 

Oh pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease Houdi. I really wanna know the answer!!

[The Lady Elanor]

Ah yeah dopey me..

[Strider]

hmm..I think that at 10am when the guard went on his break, Grant sprinted down the bridge for a couple of minutes, then turned around and walked back toward the guard house at a normal pace.

 

The guard came back from his break, was met by Grant and thought he was a civilian as he was walking toward him from the mainland side of the bridge. Then the conversation about papers was had, to which the guard told Grant he wasn't allowed inside as he had no papers. The guard then sent him on his way not realising Grant was in fact one of the prisoners.

 

Grant was then able to walk the length of the bridge to freedom at his own leisurley pace.

[The Lady Elanor]

It can't be that easy can it..

[Strider]

I don't know..maybe..but we won't know until we get the answer

[Strider]

Any sign of an answer yet?

[wyrdsister]

hmm..I think that at 10am when the guard went on his break, Grant sprinted down the bridge for a couple of minutes, then turned around and walked back toward the guard house at a normal pace.

 

The guard came back from his break, was met by Grant and thought he was a civilian as he was walking toward him from the mainland side of the bridge. Then the conversation about papers was had, to which the guard told Grant he wasn't allowed inside as he had no papers. The guard then sent him on his way not realising Grant was in fact one of the prisoners.

 

Grant was then able to walk the length of the bridge to freedom at his own leisurley pace.

I'd go for that too

[houdinia]

hmm..I think that at 10am when the guard went on his break, Grant sprinted down the bridge for a couple of minutes, then turned around and walked back toward the guard house at a normal pace.

 

The guard came back from his break, was met by Grant and thought he was a civilian as he was walking toward him from the mainland side of the bridge. Then the conversation about papers was had, to which the guard told Grant he wasn't allowed inside as he had no papers. The guard then sent him on his way not realising Grant was in fact one of the prisoners.

 

Grant was then able to walk the length of the bridge to freedom at his own leisurley pace.

sorry! i forgot i put this here! yes you're right. well done

 

HOUDINIA

[Strider]

woohoo..go me, thanks for letting us know

[KB]

Thats such a crap puzzle. surely they have some sort of prison uniform, so the guard would know he was a prisoner.

 

if not fair enuff.

[betrayed-deagol]

Thats such a crap puzzle. surely they have some sort of prison uniform, so the guard would know he was a prisoner.

 

if not fair enuff.

dont be sour grapes Dave!!! bless ya!