“That wins it, sir,” whispered Barney, and feeling desperate I tried again and again, the bars giving me so much assistance that I got on and on till I was lyings as I said, edgewise along the end, with my back against a large wooden case.
Then I stopped, panting with my exertion, the perspiration streaming from me, and feeling as if it would be impossible to get any farther. But all the same I was cheered by my success, and after gaining my breath I was just going to have another try when Barney whispered—
“What’s ahead of you? Can you touch anything?”
I stretched out my hands as far as I could reach, and this action elongated me a trifle, so that I felt myself slipping down a little—only a few inches, but that was enough; a curious oppression of my chest followed, and to my horror I realised that the passage narrowed downwards, and my weight had carried me lower, so that now at last I felt that I was hopelessly wedged in.
For some moments the horror of my position rendered me helpless. I could not struggle, but lay as if paralysed till Barney roused me by whispering in his cheery way—
“Takin’ a rest again, my lad?”
“No, no,” I panted in a hopeless tone of voice; “I’m fast, Barney; I can’t move.”
“Oh yes, you can, sir,” he replied; “take it coolly.”
“But the packages on each side are holding me,” I panted.
“Have another go, sir. You don’t know how ingyrubbery you are till you try, sir. Take it coolly, sir, then wait your time, and you’ll work yourself out just as we did. All three on us got fast.”