“What the dickens?… Are you trying to kiss yourself on the back of the neck?”
“I’b studk,” I got out. [[137]]
“Oh!…”
“Pud me ub,” I gagged. “I’b fud ud sud.”
He gave a quick jerk on the rope. Unhooked, I went kerplunk to the bottom of the chimney.
Sifting myself from the soot, sort of, I untied the rope and gave it a sharp jerk. Getting the signal, Scoop pulled the rope up the chimney. I heard him getting down from the roof. A few moments later he came to the east window, which I managed to get unfastened.
“Where are you?” he whispered.
“Here,” I said, from in front of him.
“I can’t see you.”
Of course he couldn’t see me! How could he, when I was seven shades blacker than the night, itself?