"Now there will be a fine hullabaloo," said the former quietly. "I vote we stick closely in this hiding-place, and do not allow ourselves to be scared by all the noise and fuss which they are bound to kick up. Once the escape is discovered the alarm will fly all over the town, and search-parties will be about. We are their first prisoners, and you may be sure they will not allow us to slip through their fingers without a struggle. But no one will think of looking for us here, and we have the great advantage of lying in a hollow to which the searchlight cannot penetrate. Half a minute, though. I'll just take a look over the side, and see where we are."
He raised his head cautiously, and, carefully keeping well away from the stone coping, took a good look over the side.
"Good luck!" he exclaimed, with some show of excitement, suddenly sinking to his place again. "If only we can find some means of fastening our ropes, we can drop directly over the wall. Keep where you are, Gerald, while I see what can be done."
He rose to his knees, and crept up the sloping roof to something which looked in the darkness like a chimney-stack. It proved to be what he thought, and in a twinkling he produced the end of the rope, made from torn-up blankets, which he had wound round his waist. Making a big loop in it, he slipped it over the brick-work and descended again.
"There," he said, with an excited chuckle, "I've fixed the rope, so that if our presence here is suspected we shall have a chance for freedom. Hush! What is that fellow saying?"
It was the soldier again, who, emerging from the castle at this moment, ran down the steps in such a hurry as to lose his balance and roll over and over into the yard. He picked himself up with an oath, and rushed towards the sentry.
"The prisoners have escaped!" he shouted, in high falsetto. "When I came to the cell the door was not locked, and inside Alberto lay insensible, and bound hand and foot. Quick! Ring the alarm bell, one of you."
A few moments later the deep notes were booming out over the town and castle, ringing the alarm so that all in Santiago should be on the look-out. That notice of it was taken was at once evident, for the change was wonderful. Shouts suddenly rang out from all quarters; and, as if thrown into a state of uncontrollable excitement by the commotion, the searchlight fluttered here and there, now flashing into the sky, and next moment burying its broad shaft of dazzling light in the deep waters of the harbor.
Then an officer ran hastily from his quarters in the castle, and called upon the soldiers to fall in.
"Get to your ranks at once," he cried, "and let each sergeant take his section and search a portion of the castle. Quick! There will be trouble if these prisoners get clear away."