"Only," ventured Bill, breaking the long silence which followed, "only, you know——"
Nobby interrupted him. "I know what you're after, young Bill," he said. "It's always you as is makin' plans and thinkin' things out while the rest of us is puzzling. You shut up, mates; give him a moment to think. Now then!" he said when a few more minutes had passed—passed painfully, be it mentioned; for the opening at their feet, the gleam of light which came through it, the swiftly-passing road it disclosed, were tantalizing to the prisoners. In a measure their cage was broken open and they were free to go; but that rushing train, the swiftness of its pace, made escape from their open cage still an almost impossible matter.
"Only it ain't altogether impossible," said Bill. "No, not altogether."
"Ah! Oh!" Nobby gurgled.
"You see," said Bill, "a chap might sling himself out here with his head to the back of the wagon. T'other chaps would then hold his two legs and his two hands, so that he could get his head 'way out under the last beam and take a squint round. There'll be buffers, perhaps—that's certain in fact; there'll be couplings, perhaps there'll be handles. He'll get slung back here and give directions; and then out he goes again, and you chaps'll let go one hand, when he shouts or wriggles you'll let go the other, and the fellows with the feet'll help him to move backward; finally one leg will go, then the second, and after that——"
"Ah! ah!" lisped Larry. "Yep, it is after that. You ain't yet out of the wood—not by a long bit. Say, sonny, it's a bright idea; it's a really bright brain-wave, but——"
"Here, catch hold!" said Bill with decision. "Larry, you stand by and direct operations. Jim will hold one hand, Tom, here, the other. Nobby's the boy for the legs; I should be safe, I know, if he'd got a grip of 'em. Now then, swing me down. Don't be frightened! Here I go!"
And go he did. They gripped him by all four extremities and lowered him through the opening as they would have lowered a bundle or a bed, then very carefully they allowed his form to drift, as it were, backward till his head was under the farthest edge of the wagon. Peering up through a cloud of dust, which almost smothered him, Bill caught sight of a coupling clanging just overhead, and, on either side, of buffers, as he had suspected. Better than all, there was a strong iron handle or grip beside the coupling, and one immediately opposite it on the next truck, while below it was a foot-rest by means of which one could mount the side of this truck, which, like the one in which they were, was covered. He wriggled, and at the signal was hauled back.
"Waal?" demanded Larry hoarsely, while Nobby leaned over the opening and peered into his face, breathing heavily on him.
"Can't say," came from Bill, "only the trick can be done right enough. Next time I'll clamber along and see if the doors can be opened. Now you swing me down again, holding my wrists and ankles. When I double up my right hand, let it go, and keep me as far swung back as you can. When I've got a grip I'll move the other hand and you can let that go too. I'll jiggle my feet in turn as I want you to liberate 'em—get me?"