“Gee! A big idea, Jo!” exclaimed Ben admiringly.
“I think that three of us can get up on it. Let’s practice. We don’t want to make much noise when we’re really using it against the side of the wreck. Anybody inside the cabin could hear us like rats in the wall.”
So Jo placed the ladder under a small window in the barn. He climbed up until his head was opposite the window and then Ben followed. Jo stood as near one end of his rung as possible and Ben stood on the other end; they had one foot each on the ladder while the other twined about the pole. Then Ann came up between them. She was glad that she was thin and lanky!
“Pretty good,” said Jo. “I think that we can manage that.”
In order to be ready for any emergency they carried the ladder down to the road and hid it in the bushes that made a hedge between the road and the meadow, directly opposite the wreck.
They had not made their preparations a day too soon, for that very night as Ann was ready to hop into bed she heard a tap against her window, a secret tap, the signal of the band. She pulled back the curtains and saw Jo standing outside in the moonlight.
“Somebody is coming,” he said in low tones. “See there,” and he pointed across the meadow.
At first Ann could see nothing; then a small light flashed and instantly disappeared.
“I thought he wouldn’t bring a lantern again,” said Jo with quiet satisfaction in his powers of deduction. “He has a flashlight this time.”
The gleam showed again and swung in a semicircle over the meadow.