Hiram was already wrapping his coat around a large rock taken from one of the casks, which as I understood was intended to represent my head, and when this had been placed upon the bed, he made a roll of blankets to form the body. Over this he threw a second blanket, and if so be the light was dim, I believed, as I stood near the table where Master Lord would naturally come if he should pay us a visit during the night, that it was a fair resemblance to myself as he had just seen me.
"I'm allowing that you can make your way out after five minutes of digging," Hiram whispered to me, and then came to my mind the one important question which we had failed to settle.
"How shall I cover the hole?"
"That is for you to decide after getting out. My idea is that the turf may be thrown up in such a way that it can be replaced, and yet I question much whether it is of any very great importance to conceal the mouth of the tunnel during such time as you may be absent, for why should any person, much less Job Lord, be prowling around the rear of this building in the night?"
With this Hiram dismissed the matter as if believing it was not a vital one, and instructed me as to how the first portion of the work should be performed. He was to stand on the table, having pulled out the plug of cloth from one of the apertures, where it might be possible to hear what was going on overhead. Archie would take station a few feet distant, toward the casks, while Harvey remained close by the rubbish hole. Then if Hiram heard any suspicious sounds he would motion to the one nearest, who could in turn let the next sentinel know, and this last might warn me to keep quiet in the tunnel. If perchance Master Lord did come down into the room, because of being suspicious, or in order to hold any further converse, I must stay in the passage, and the dummy play my part the same as if I had gained the outside.
When all this had been decided upon and understood, the lads stationed themselves, and I crept into the tunnel, finding the passage so very much narrower than I had counted upon that already was I beginning to fear I might, through clumsiness, so wedge myself in that it would be impossible to advance or retreat.
That, however, was one of the chances which must be taken, if we would get about the work in the only manner that promised success, and I wriggled my way upward until having come to where the earth was seemingly solid above my head, on the alert meanwhile for a signal from Harvey which should tell of danger in the rear.
Without delay, and yet not hastily lest by too much speed a blunder be made, I scraped away the dirt from above my head, allowing it to fall wheresoever it would, until I could feel the roots of the grass, and knew I was come to the turf.
Then, feeling carefully around at the very edge, so that I might force it upward in such a manner as to form a lid that would drop back into place again, I pressed with all my strength.
The roots of the grass tore asunder; a draft of fresh air struck upon my face, and, looking upward, I could see stars twinkling in the sky in a most friendly fashion, as it seemed to me.