In a moment Roy was up in the slanting embrasure. Jean's hand met his; and together, noiselessly, they wrenched the bar aside.
"Hist! Be still as death!" whispered Jean.
Roy worked himself through the opening, Jean's grasp steadying him. He found his feet to be resting on the topmost rung of a ladder. Jean whispered one or two directions; then he went down himself, and held it firm while Roy followed. Little need was there to bid the boy be quiet in his movements. The slightest sound might betray them.
No sooner had they reached the bottom than Jean's hand gripped Roy's wrist, and led him away. The ladder had to remain where it was. Its removal would have meant too great a risk. Roy could not see where they were. Pitch darkness surrounded them; but Jean moved with confidence, though with extreme care.
Soon they had to pass near a sentry, and a sharp challenge was heard. Roy's heart leaped into his mouth; and Jean promptly replied with the password for the night. Veiled by the darkness, they went by in safety.
At length the outer wall was gained—that same wall which the middies had reached in their attempted escape, though at a different part of it. Jean had chosen this mode of escape, not daring to take Roy under the eyes of sentries at the gates, where, despite his command of the password, the prisoner would almost certainly have been found out.
In a quiet corner, where nobody seemed to be near, Jean drew down the end of a stout rope, already secured at the top of the wall, and knotted loosely out of easy reach. This had been his doing after dark, before he went to Roy's cell. With the help of the rope they made their way to the top, Roy first, Jean next, pulling it after them, and lowering it on the other side. Then together they trusted their weight to it.
As they hung over the depth, Roy recalled the cold-blooded act of two or three weeks earlier. If any man had obtained an inkling of Jean's intentions, or had discovered the rope, the same tragedy might now be repeated on a smaller scale. One clear cut would do the business. He and Jean would fall heavily downward; and in an instant he too, like Will, might be in that Land where dungeons and cruel separations are things of the past.
These thoughts came to Roy unbidden, even while his whole attention was bent to the task of working himself hand under hand, swiftly and noiselessly, down the rope. Already his hands were torn and strained, yet under the excitement of the moment he felt no pain.
The rope remained taut. There was no sudden yielding from above, no helpless plunge earthward. He and Jean arrived in safety on firm ground.