“You can pull me back by the heels if I get stuck,” he told Bob.
“Wait a minute before you try. How far from the shack do you suppose we are?” Bob asked.
“I should say about three hundred feet.”
“Which is about a hundred too much. I don’t think it’s more than two hundred if it is that.”
“Maybe you’re right. I didn’t pay much attention to the distance while we were crawling through. But what difference does it make?”
“It might make a lot and then it might not make any. It all depends on whether or not you’ll be in sight of the shack when you get out. I don’t think that anyone has been watching this place because I don’t believe they know anything about it, but that doesn’t mean that it’s so, you know. They may be ready to grab us the instant we show our heads, but we’ve got to risk that. I only want to caution you to keep low down and not make any noise.
“All right, then, here goes.” And Jack started to force his body through the hole.
It was a tight fit and required a lot of twisting and squirming, but he finally managed it. As he drew his feet out he lay still stretched at full length on the ground only raising his head slightly to glance about him. There was no sound to indicate the presence of anyone and after a moment he got to his hands and knees. To his great satisfaction he saw that the opening was surrounded by thick growth and that the shack was not visible. He placed his head back into the hole and whispered:
“It’s all right, old man, there’s nobody here and the shack is out of sight.”
“Can you hear them talking?”