“Me? Why, jedge, I might forget to come back.”
“I’ll attend to that,” answered the boy. “Go to the edge of the wall where yon rock lies, and look over. If I am not mistaken, you’ll see the gallows that I have used on two occasions.”
“The timber in the wall, eh?”
“Yes; you’ve seen it?”
“Do you think you could climb down to it to-night, cut the subject loose that hangs from it, and bring the rope up?”
For the first time Tom Terror showed signs of weakness.
“I never tried to go down a perpendicular wall, smooth as glass—”
“Oh, there are steps—niches in it,” interrupted the boy. “Go and look.”
A minute’s walk sufficed to bring Old Tom to the fringe of the precipice, and a moment later, with much of his old courage, he was looking over the dizzy height.
A shade of disappointment came to the faces of the watchers. He was looking down as if his suspicions had been confirmed.