Part 31 (1/2)

There was a clicking of the iron fastening, the as thrust up higher and higher, till it was to the full extent of the ratchet support, and then by passing one ar in two, Don was able to raise hi, so that the nextdown the sloping roof, and the other hanging inside, but in a very aard position, on account of the broad skylight

”Can't you open itwill hold it up”

”Push it right over, Mas' Don, so as it , so as you don't slip But you'll be all right

I've got the rope, and won't let it go”

Don did as he was told, taking tightly hold of the long cross central bar, and placing his knees, and then his feet, against the front of the opening, so that he was in the position of a four-footed aniher and higher, till, holding on to the cross-bar with one hand, and the ratchet fastening with the other, he thrust up and up, till the skylight was perpendicular, and he paused, panting with the exertion

”All right, Mas' Don; I've got the rope Noer it down gently, till it lies flat on the slope That's the way; steady! Steady!”

_Bang_! _crash_! _jingle_!

”Oh, Mas' Don!”

”I couldn't help it, Je caht had fallen back with a crash, and so down, so into the alley below

There was a dead silence, neither of the would-be evaders of the enforced king's service htest sound

”Think they heared it, Mas' Don?” said Jem, at last, in a hoarse whisper

”I can't hear anything,” replied Don, softly

They listened again, but all onderfully quiet A distant murmur came from the busy streets, and a clock struck nine

”Why, that's Old Church,” said Jem in a whisper ”We must be close down to the water side, Mas' Don”

”Yes, Jeive it up, or risk it?”

”I'll show you d'reckly,” said Jem ”You make that there end fast round the bar It isn't rotten, is it?”

”No,” said Don, after an exa the rope from his waist, he knotted it to the little bea at the rope, then a jerk, and next swung to it, going to and fro for a few seconds

”Hold a ton,” whispered Jeripped the rope between his legs and over his ankle and foot, and apparently with the greatest ease drew hi over and sat astride with his face bea

”They sha'n't have us this tih his hands until he had reached the end, when he gathered it up in rings, till he had enough to throw beyond the sloping roof

”Here goes!” he whispered; and he tossed it fro ropenoise

One of the broken fraged, and slid rapidly down the tiles