I walked through the big yard, to feel the warm sunshine A ninety-nine year man, stepped over to me He offered a smoke, and said as I rolled it "Tomorrow I'm goin', to break out and go free" "They feed us by sunlight, they watch us by spotlight But I know a way that a man can go free Down under my cell, I'm diggin' a tunnel The walls of a prison can never hold me" I told him that, I'd have no part of his scheming My time would be up, one year from today His eyes blazed with fire, and he looked right through me Bitter, but broken, again he did say "They feed us by sunlight, they watch us by spotlight But I know a way that a man can go free Down under my cell, I'm diggin' a tunnel The walls of a prison can never hold me" Next morning at breakfast, the old man was missing Then we all heard the rifles high up on the wall He'd gone through the tunnel, just like he had promised And they said he was crying, when they saw him fall They feed us by sunlight, they watch us by spotlight But I know a way that a man can go free Down under my cell, I'm diggin' a tunnel The walls of a prison can never hold me