CROW'S NEST
HE had brought a ball of string in his pocket, this time, and he was glad to know he could lower the ladder by it—for the thud of a falling ladder would sound far in the night stillness. From the top of the wall he held the ladder while she mounted.
"Sit here a moment," he said, "while I get rid of the ladder." He lowered it gently, drew the string up, leaped to the ground outside the wall, and held up his hands to her.
"Jump," he whispered. "I'll catch you."
But even as he spoke she had turned and was hanging by her hands. He let her do it her own way. She dropped expertly, landing with a little rebound. He was glad he had not tried to catch her. It would have been a poor beginning to their comradeship if he had, at the very outset, shown doubts of her competence to do anything she set out to do.
They stood under the wall very near together.
"What are you going to do?" she said.
"I must get a car and take you away. Are you afraid to be left alone for a couple of hours?"
"I—I don't think so," she said. "But where? Did you notice the lights as you got over the wall?"