“It looks like a rope.”
“It’s a snake.”
“It is only a hangman’s rope,” said the French boy, authoritatively. “That’s what they use. Only I don’t believe in them.”
And in three bounds, rather than steps, he found himself against the wall of the building.
The two others, trembling, imitated him, and came pressing against him, one on his right side, the other on his left. The boys applied their ears to the wall. The sounds continued.
The following was the conversation of the phantoms:—
“Asi, entendido esta?”
“Entendido.”
“Dicho?”