"I am of the belief that we have made what you might call a tunnel straight through, and within a dozen inches of the surface," he replied. "I had no means of guessing as to the distance, except by taking the flooring of the building as being well on the level, and from that I feel positive I had made my way upward to a point equal in height to the last rung of the ladder. The question that bothers me is, how we can break through the crust of earth without leaving behind token of what has been done?"
"Why should we care whether any person saw how we escaped?" Archie asked in bewilderment. "Once Job Lord fails to find us he will know we have gone, and it matters little how soon he discovers the tunnel."
"Aye, if so be we counted on taking to our heels at once; but there is in my mind an idea that we may play this double-faced Master Lord a reasonably neat trick. It is agreed that we want to stay in Boston until it is possible to aid Silas, or we have come to know that nothing can be done, and where could we find a better hiding-place than this?"
"But surely we can't count on going in and out at our pleasure, for the chances would be against us. Master Lord might come at any time, and when we attempted to return the jig would be up."
"As to that I am not certain," Hiram said as, having removed all traces of the work from his person, he seated himself at the table evidently ready to enter into an argument should any of us dispute his proposition. "While working in the tunnel the idea came to me that if we carried the digging through successfully, one of us might be on the outside, and Master Lord fail to discover the fact even if he paid us a visit."
"How do you make that out?" Harvey asked incredulously.
"Suppose, for instance, Luke ventured outside through the passageway, if so be we can hit upon a plan of preventing the end of the tunnel from being seen on the surface. Now then, it should not be a very difficult job for us to rig up a dummy which would have somewhat the appearance of a lad lying on the bed as if asleep. Then we will say that you, Harvey, lie down beside the figure, pretending to be asleep. Master Lord comes; finds Archie and me sitting here at the table; glances at the bed, sees Harvey's face, and also what appears to be Luke's head. Think you he would have any suspicion that matters were wrong?"
"But suppose he did?" I insisted, determined to understand all the possibilities of Hiram's scheme; but not allowing that it might be put through successfully.
"Well, we will suppose his suspicions are aroused, and he goes over to the bed to make certain Luke is there. How much worse off are we in case he discovers the trick? We know him to be our enemy, regardless of the confidence which our people may put in him, and it is also a fact that we are bound to keep our eyes open for the first move he shall make, because the end of this matter, from his point of view, is our capture by the Britishers when the time comes that all his purposes are served."
"Well, what then?" I demanded impatiently. "Once he has made the discovery that I am outside, can you prevent him raising an alarm, and thus bringing the lobster backs upon those who are inside?"