“No, I have done my scrambling about a ship’s gear. Next time I shall bring a rope.”
She put up her hands to the bars.
“But it is so dark, and so deep. Can’t I help you, John?”
He hung there, and, seeing her hands so near, stretched one of his to meet them.
“What have you in the room, Barbe?”
“There are the sheets on the bed.”
“How many?”
She climbed down and pulled the bedclothes on to the floor.
“Two sheets and the blanket.”
“A short three fathoms. They would help me over the worst piece. Are you strong enough to knot them into a rope?”