They secured it round the iron bar.
“I’ll go first,” said Jack; “if the rope bears me, it’s certain to bear you.”
“No; I proposed the plan, and I ought to go first,” answered Bill. “It’s of no use wasting words. Don’t begin to come down till you feel that I am off the rope. So here goes.”
Bill, on saying this, climbed through the narrow opening between the bar and the side of the window, and then, first grasping the bar with his hands, threw his legs off straight down, and began descending the thin rope. Jack stretched out his head to watch him, but Bill soon disappeared in the darkness.
The rope held, however, though, as he felt it, it appeared stretched to the utmost. He could with difficulty draw a breath, while he waited till, by finding the rope slacken, he should know that Bill had safely reached the bottom. At last he ascertained that Bill was no longer hanging to the rope, while, from not hearing a sound, he was sure that his companion had performed the feat in safety.
As Bill had charged him not to lose a moment, he, following his example, commenced his descent.
Down and down he went, but had he not been thoroughly accustomed to suspend himself on thin ropes, he could not have held on. It seemed to him that he should never reach the bottom; how much further he had to go he could not tell.
All at once he felt a hand grasping him by the leg. A sudden fear seized him.
Could the Frenchmen have got hold of Bill, and were they about to recapture him?
He could with difficulty refrain from crying out; still, as there would be no use in attempting to get up the rope again, he continued to lower himself.