Finally, however, they found a place where they could peer through the bushes and watch the foe in safety, and there they huddled down and waited impatiently.
It was quite funny to watch the yearlings. The latter, of course, did not know that the fort had been deserted. They imagined that its defenders were silently awaiting another attack. The yearlings were determined to capture it and were holding a consultation.
The first scheme that they hit on was this: Everybody gathered some stones in his hand and at a given signal let them drive through the entrance. The missiles were expected to create havoc among the watching plebes, a sort of artillery bombardment previous to an infantry attack. You may imagine how the watching lads laughed at that trick.
Naturally the shower of stones produced no result, and so there was another consultation. At the end of it Rogers, somewhat bolder than the rest, volunteered to risk the climb once more. It was a very heroic resolve, and it took the hero no little time to get up the nerve. Finally, however, he stepped forward and sprang up the ascent.
Our friends, the Seven, almost burst with laughter to see him duck and dodge, as if expecting another shower of bones every moment. When he reached the entrance his behavior was more ludicrous still.
Can you imagine a soldier peering over the top of a breastwork when he knows that sharpshooters are near? That was Rogers. He would raise up his head and then duck down again. Next time he would raise it a little more, and then duck down further still. At last he managed to get his eyes up to the level of the entrance and peered in. He saw nothing suspicious, and so finally he took to exploring with one hand.
This he did in exactly the same way. He would thrust his arm into the dark hole and then jerk it out again as if it had been bitten by a snake. Then after a while he would put it in again. Meeting with no resistance only made him the more cautious, for it convinced him that the plebes were working a plot of some kind. They were doing that for a fact, but not in the way Rogers suspected.
He soon got tired of that kind of attack. Reflecting that in all probability the plebes wouldn’t hurt him much if they did capture him, he suddenly sprang up and plunged head and shoulders through the hole. A moment later his feet shot in, too, and he landed with a crash upon the floor.
The anxiety with which those outside waited and listened may be imagined. What would happen next they had no idea. Their comrade might have been seized and gagged in an instant; he might have tumbled into a barrel of water, or even paint; he might have broken his neck.
“Hello!” shouted the yearlings outside, “who’s in there?”