“Lawsy sakes! S’posin’ it looks out on one ob dem bottomless pitses lak yo’ all near fell inter ter-night?”
“Can’t be helped, it’s the only way we can escape. Hark! They’re coming now. Get over to the window with as little noise as you can.”
“How ’bout you alls?”
“I’ll follow. You get it open first.”
Without another word the negro noiselessly wriggled across the floor to the window—a mere opening in the wall—that Rob had observed. At the same instant there came the “creak! creak!” of the staircase as one of the men below began to ascend the stairway.
There was a big bit of loose timber lying near Rob’s straw. With a sudden flash of anger at the thought of the men’s treachery, the lad snatched it up.
“They shan’t get off scot free, anyhow,” he decided within himself.
With the bulk of timber clutched in both his hands, ready poised for a blow, Rob waited by the opening at the head of the rickety stairway as the midnight assailant ascended.
CHAPTER XVII.
“WE WANT YOU.”
A stubbly red-head protruded itself through the opening. The crucial moment had come.