“I was waiting till we heard the Doctor snoring,” I replied. “Go and listen at the door; his room, you know, is on the other side of the landing, and you’ll be able to tell in a minute whether he is asleep or not.”
Tom did as I requested, stealing noiselessly across the room for the purpose, returning quickly with the news that our worthy preceptor was fast in the arms of Morpheus, judging by the stentorian sound of his deep breathing. Dr Hellyer had made a hearty dinner, in spite of our having upset his equanimity so unexpectedly. He had likewise disposed of an equally hearty tea; so he was now sleeping soundly—his peaceful slumbers doubtless soothed with sweet dreams in reference to the punishment he intended inflicting on us on the morrow, not thinking for a moment, unhappy dreamer, that the poor birds whom he had, as he imagined, effectually snared and purposed plucking, would by that time, if all went well with our plans, have flown far beyond reach of his nervous arm!
The master asleep, we had no fear of interruption from any one else, for the old woman took her repose in the back kitchen, out of earshot of anything happening in the front of the house, and Smiley and the Cobbler were probably snoring away as composedly as their chief in the dormitories above, of which they were in charge; so, Tom and I at once began operations for effecting our “strategic retreat” from the establishment.
The windows of the refectory opened on to a narrow balcony that ran along the front of the house; and these, having heavy wooden shutters, fastened by horizontal iron bars, latching into a catch, we had some little difficulty in opening the one we fixed on for making our exit by, the bar securing it being some height from the floor and quite beyond our reach.
However, as Tom magniloquently quoted, difficulties were only made for brave men—or boys—to surmount. By lifting one of the forms as quietly as we could close to the window, and standing on this, the two of us managed to raise the iron bar from the catch and let it swing down, although the hinges made a terrible creaking noise in the operation, which we thought would waken Dr Hellyer up. However, on going to the door to listen again, we heard him still snoring, so we then proceeded to unfasten the window, letting in the cold night air, that made us shiver as it blew into the room from the sea.
It was quite dark when we got outside into the balcony, although we could see a star or two faintly glimmering overhead; while away to the westward, across the common, the red light at the pier-head marking the entrance to the harbour was visible.
Like most watering-places in the “dead season,” everybody went to bed early in the terrace; so that, although it could have been barely ten o’clock, not a light was to be seen from the windows of the neighbouring houses.
“Just the night for a burglary!” said Tom with a snigger, on our cautiously looking round us to see if the coast was clear.
“Yes,” I chimed in, joyously, “only, we are going to burgle out, instead of breaking in;” and we then both had a hearty chuckle at this little joke.
Still, no time was to be lost, now that we had got so far. The next thing, therefore, to do, was to descend the balcony; and, here, my happily-thought-of rope ladder came in handily to deliver us from durance vile.