“Ay, but I hadn’t been to sea then, Mas’ Don. Well, didn’t I have that there case up to the top floor, and then lower it down through all the traps, and get it into the ground floor without the door being cut; and when your uncle come in, he stared, and asked me how I’d managed it?”
“Yes, I remember it all,” said Don sadly.
“Look here, you two. I don’t want to be hard,” said the marine; “but you’ll get me into a row. Now, are you going to clap on the hatchways, or am I to report you?”
“All right, Jolly; we won’t talk any more,” said Jem; and he kept his word that night.
There was no release next day, and very drearily it passed till towards evening, when Jem waited till the sentry’s back was turned, and put his lips to Don’s ear.
“I’ve got it, Mas’ Don,” he said.
“What, can you see your way to escape?”
“I’ve hit it out, my lad. Look here. Do you know them’s men’s irons you’ve got on?”
“Yes. They don’t make irons for boys.”
“Then look here, my lad; it may mean a bit of skin off; but all you’ve got to do is to squeeze your feet through those rings, and then I’ll be bound to say a thin slip of a fellow like you can creep out of the iron round your waist.”