“Tom,” Percy hastily whispered, at the same time going down upon his knees, “get up on my shoulders, quick.”
The reason for this seemingly senseless request was that, the elk-hide being too short to cover the whole of the doorway, there was a gap of three inches at the top through which one might look out if he could reach high enough. Following Percy’s instructions, I bestrode his neck, and he then rose carefully to his feet; no easy task for either of us, considering that we were deprived of the use of our hands. For Percy it was especially difficult, but fortunately he was very stout on his pins, and after one or two preliminary wabbles which threatened to send me headlong to the floor, he succeeded in standing upright.
For five minutes he thus supported me, while I watched Squeaky as he rode across the open, entered the strip of woods, appeared again on the other side, and vanished into the gorge, when I whispered, “All right,” and Percy going down upon his knees again, I dismounted.
Without an instant’s pause my companion leaned back against the wall, put up his foot, and whispered to me to pull off his boot. Backing up to his foot I seized the boot-heel with my bound hands, and after some ineffectual struggles Percy withdrew his foot; in doing so he pulled out the knife also, which fell upon the floor with a clank loud enough, as it seemed to us, to wake the echoes. We paused, breathless, listening for Bates to make some movement, but he apparently had heard nothing.
Percy, by lying down upon the ground, managed to get hold of the knife, and grasping it firmly by the handle, point upward, the edge toward himself, he rose to his feet again.
“Now, Tom,” said he, “get back to back. Pass the rope that ties your wrists over the point of the knife and work it up and down against the edge. I’ll hold the knife steady. Don’t cut yourself; it’s pretty sharp.”
With some difficulty, being unable to see what I was doing, I followed these instructions, and after about two minutes’ sawing the rope broke with a pop and my hands were free. I took the knife from Percy, and being able now to see my work, I soon cut his bonds; when he, in turn, freed my elbows, and our hands once more became serviceable members.
“What’s the next move, Percy?” I asked, as I cast the remnants of rope into the corner. “How are we to get at Bates?”
“Let us cut a hole in the hide first, so that we can see what he is doing,” Percy replied. “Climb up on my shoulders again.”
I was soon up this time. Bates was sitting quietly on a log with his face towards the cabin.