But the narrow circular exit of the cell was still twelve feet above them. How were they to reach it? The walls were smooth as the inside of the bottle from which the prison-house took its name, curving in at the top, without foothold or niches in their smooth surface, so that no climber could ascend more than a few feet.
The Bounding Brothers stepped to the front, and with a hitch of their shoulders, stood waiting.
"Ready!" said Billy.
In a moment Charlie Lee was balancing himself on the third storey of the fraternal pyramid. He could just look over the edge of the platform on which the mouth of the dungeon was placed. He ducked down sharply.
"THE LIVING CHAIN."
"They are all at their windows, yelling like fun," he whispered, with the white, eager look of battle on his face.
"Up, and at 'em!" said Billy, as if he had been the Great Duke.
And at his word the Bounding Brothers arched their shoulders to receive the weight of the coming climbers. One after another the remaining eleven scrambled up, swift and silent as cats; and with Charlie Lee at their head, lay prone on the dungeon platform, waiting the word of command. Close as herrings in a barrel they crouched, their arms outstretched before them, and their chins sunk low on the masonry.