“No,” I replied. “He didn’t hear a sound, evidently. Did you get it all down? Can you get out, do you think?”
“Oh, yes, I can get out. The thing now is to bring him up close. Watch, while I stir him up.”
Percy stepped to the wall of the cabin, and taking hold of a big piece of loose bark he ripped it off. At the sound Bates sprang to his feet, all alert in an instant, advanced a step or two, and stopped.
“Scratch!” I whispered.
Percy scraped the piece of bark upon the floor, making a small but distinct sound, upon hearing which Bates advanced again on the tips of his toes. His suspicions were aroused; which was just what we wanted.
I held up my finger. Percy stopped, and so did Bates. I could see by his expression that he was listening intently. Once more the operation was repeated, with the same result, and Bates being now within ten feet of the cabin, Percy handed the piece of bark to me and himself crept into the fireplace.
I stepped to one side of the cabin, scratched a little, and hopped back to the peep-hole, just in time to see Bates go picking his way round the corner of the house. Immediately afterwards a handful of dirt fell into the fireplace: a preconcerted signal to let me know that Percy was safely up on the roof.
I then got inside the fireplace myself, that being the safest situation in case Bates should fire through the chinks,—though we did not believe he would do so,—and reaching as far as I could round the corner, I began scraping the floor of the cabin near the wall with the crackling bark, pausing every now and then to listen.
It was an anxious moment, for the success of our plan depended upon my being able to induce Bates to come close to the wall. Percy, I knew, was lying flat upon the roof, eagerly awaiting his opportunity; but where was Bates? That was the important question.
Once more I began scratching on the floor, when, as if he had known of my anxiety, and was desirous of removing it, Bates, with an assumed gruffness of voice which nearly made me give vent to an inopportune laugh, called out: