"I don't think they will find us," Walter said cheerfully. "When they have searched the castle thoroughly it may occur to some of them that we have jumped down the well, but it will be no particular business of any one to look for us, and they will all be too anxious to get at the wine butts to trouble their heads about the matter; besides, it must be a heavy job to wind up this bucket, and it is not likely there will be such urgent need of water that any one will undertake the task."
"But we are no better off if they don't," Ralph remarked, "for we must die here if we are not hauled out. I suppose you don't intend to try and climb that rope. I might do twenty feet or so on a pinch, but I could no more get up to the top there than I could fly."
"We must think it over," Walter rejoined; "where there is a will there's a way, you know. We will take it by turns to watch that little patch of light overhead; if we see any one looking down we must leave the bucket and swim to the side without making the least noise. They may give a few turns of the windlass to see if any one has hold of the rope below; be sure you do not make the slightest splashing or noise, for the sound would be heard above to a certainty."
Ten minutes later they saw two heads appear above, and instantly withdrew their feet from the bucket and made a stroke to the side, which was but four feet distant, being careful as they did so that no motion was imparted to the rope. Then, though it was too dark to see anything, they heard the bucket lifted from the water. A minute later it fell back again with a splash, then all was quiet.
"We are safe now, and can take our place in the bucket. They are satisfied that if we did jump down here we are drowned. And now we must think about climbing up."
"Ay, that will require a good deal of thinking," Ralph grumbled.
For some time there was silence; then Walter said, "The first thing to do is to cut off the slack of the rope; there are some twelve feet of it. Then we will unwind the strands of that. There are five or six large strands as far as I can feel; we will cut them up into lengths of about a couple of feet, and we ought to be able to tie these to the rope in such a way as not to slip down with our weight. If we tie them four feet apart we can go up step by step; I don't see much difficulty about that."
"No," Ralph said much more cheerfully, "I should think that we could manage that."
They at once set to work. The rope was cut up and unraveled, and the strands cut into pieces about two feet long. They then both set to work trying to discover some way of fastening it by which it would not slip down the rope. They made many fruitless attempts; each time that a strand was fastened with a loop large enough for them to pass a leg through, it slid down the rope when their weight was applied to it. At last they succeeded in finding out a knot which would hold. This was done by tying a knot close to one end of a piece of the strand, then sufficient was left to form the loop, and the remainder was wound round the rope in such away that the weight only served to tighten its hold.
"Shall we begin at once?" Ralph said, when success was achieved.