“It will be all the better,” said Fitz, decisively, “for we need not wait for the other fellows to come and pull me up. If you and Lady Haigh will fasten the rope round something firm, and pull at it both together with all your strength to test the knots, you can send me the end, and I will come up hand over hand if you will help to hoist me over the parapet.”
The two ladies agreed to this proposition with fear and trembling, and many hopes that Dick and Stratford would arrive before the construction of the rope was completed. But they did not come, and the knots were tied and tested, and the rope fastened with extraordinary care round the stone pillar which formed the central support of the carved lattice-work of the window. With many cautions, the other end was passed down to Fitz, and he came up it in a way which extorted mingled admiration and terror from the watchers. Helping hands assisted him over the parapet, and at last he stood safe and sound upon the terrace.
“Well,” he said, cheerfully, “I shall have to tell the gymnasium instructor at Whitcliffe Grammar School how useful his teaching has been when I get home. Without it I might have remained on that ledge all night, and serenaded you with Orange ditties at a hopeless distance, Miss Keeling. But I mustn’t forget to restore you your lost property. There is your stethoscope, and here is your cat.”
Untying the handkerchief he presented to her, and which had been secured in some complicated way to the buttonholes of his coat, Georgia released Colleen Bawn, very much rumpled and highly indignant, from her imprisonment, and deposited her on the ground, soothing her ruffled feelings and fur by a little friendly stroking.
“I am ashamed to think you should have taken so much trouble about her, Mr Anstruther. Thank you very, very much, and for finding the stethoscope too. What do you think of doing now?”
“I should rather like some grub, if there is any going. I haven’t had anything since breakfast, for I hadn’t the forethought to take meat lozenges with me, as Stratford did. Biscuits, or something of that sort that is at hand, and won’t need preparing, for I don’t intend to stay here, and I don’t want to be caught.”
A frugal meal of biscuits, potted meat, and water, in which Colleen Bawn claimed a share, was quickly set before Fitz, and when his hunger was partially satisfied he looked up.
“Lady Haigh, I want you to exert your authority. When I found that you were all in here, and I was outside, I had some thoughts of making for the frontier at once and fetching help; but then I hit on another plan. I want Miss Keeling to come too. My horse has been resting ever since the storm, and is perfectly fresh, and she could ride him splendidly if we changed the saddle. I could walk all right, and we should be a good way towards Fort Rahmat-Ullah in the morning.”
Lady Haigh sat down upon the parapet and burst into stifled but irrepressible laughter, which failed, however, to disconcert Fitz.
“My dear boy,” she gasped, while he looked at her resolutely and without a smile, “it is quite untrue to say that the age of chivalry—of the wildest knight-errantry—is gone. Can you really think it possible that we should allow Miss Keeling to go wandering off like Una, with you as a protector instead of the lion? Why, it is fully three days’ journey to the frontier from here, and there are enemies all the way.”