Then there came a loud scraping noise from outside, and Tom sprang towards the open shutter, convinced that his quarry had climbed out into the tiny gallery; but at the same moment he came heavily in contact with some one, and was taken so unexpectedly, that at the end of a brief struggle here and there upon the floor Tom uttered a cry, for he stepped suddenly down over the edge of the trap-way, completely losing his balance as his foot was checked on a stair eighteen inches below, and he fell heavily, bumping down all of a heap to the lower floor, where he lay half-stunned, listening to the banging down of the trap once more, and feeling stupid and confused as he gathered himself up, and again ascended the steps, to thrust open the door with hands and head.
This time as he passed through he closed the trap after him, and stood dizzy and panting, knowing that he was hurt, but unable to tell how much.
A sound that he heard cleared his head the next moment, for it sent a thrill of excitement through him which told him he could not be very bad, and he stepped quickly to the open shutter and began to get through.
For the sound he heard was the rap of the top of the ladder against the little gallery rails; and as he crept out and into the little wooden construction, he felt for and touched the end of the ladder, which was quivering as if some one was going down.
There was no dizziness in Tom’s brain now. The enemy was just below and escaping.
Passing one leg over the rail, Tom planted a foot safely as he held on, then the other, and began to descend as rapidly as he could, feeling the ladder quiver more and more, and then hearing as he was half-way down a whisper. Then he felt a jerk, one side of the slight implement was wrenched over sidewise, and the top glided from the gallery. The next moment he was falling as he clung, and before he had time to think, he and the ladder came to the ground with a crash.
Chapter Forty One.
Tom was some ten feet or so from the ground when he described an arc in the darkness, so that it was not a very serious fall, but bad enough to knock the sense out of him for a moment or two, and the worse from its coming so closely upon his bumping down the upper steps. Consequently he lay quite still with the ladder upon him for a while, with a dim idea that he could hear whispering, scrambling, and then the patter of steps somewhere not far away.