Blind Corner · Chapter
IX: Out of the Eater explained
The chapter details the group's entrapment in the oubliette, their desperate attempts to escape, and their eventual flight with the treasure.
What happens
The chapter details the group's entrapment in the oubliette, their desperate attempts to escape, and their eventual flight with the treasure. After breaking through the wall, they navigate the shaft and well, evade the thieves, and make their way across borders, ultimately dividing the spoils in London.
Themes in this chapter
Survival and Endurance
The group's physical and mental struggle to escape the oubliette and the well highlights their endurance under extreme pressure.
Greed and Obsession
The treasure's allure drives the characters to risk their lives and engage in dangerous deceptions, reflecting the theme's presence.
Characters to notice
- Jonathan Mansel
Leads the group with calm and strategic thinking, devising the escape plan and later managing the customs evasion.
- Richard William Chandos
Narrates the chapter, participates in the escape, and expresses anxiety about the treasure's concealment.
- Carson Hanbury
Drives the car and later guards the shoot, holding fire until necessary.
- Rowley
Files at the bars in a frantic attempt to escape, showing desperation.
- Ellis
Deceased; his body is used to retrieve the torch, and his death is discussed.
Key passages
“Had our doom been set forth upon paper and submitted to Rose Noble himself, for his approval, I cannot believe that he would have altered one particular.”
Our fate was so perfectly aligned with Rose Noble's plans that he would not have changed a single detail.
Chandos reflects on the inevitability of their entrapment.
“The first thing to do is to keep calm: the second is to break these bars.”
We must stay composed and then focus on breaking the bars.
Mansel's leadership in the crisis.
“I’m not going to be caught at the post. There’s the postern and the shoot and the river between them and us: but four of us are no better than dead men, and I couldn’t hit Rose Noble at seven feet.”
We cannot afford to be caught now; we are too exhausted to fight, and I am too weak to shoot accurately.
Mansel's urgency to flee despite their condition.
“If you’ve something to hide, always hide it in the most obvious place.”
The best way to conceal something is to put it where everyone can see it.
Mansel's clever tactic for smuggling the treasure.