“Where is it?” I asked, for I could neither see nor feel it.
“Get hold of the bars with your hands, and lower yourself till you get your feet round the rope. Don’t let go with one hand till you’ve a firm hold with the other. I’ll guide you.”
Following his instructions, I lowered my body over the window-sill till I could grasp the rope with my hands, when without much difficulty I slid down to the ground. For an instant my satisfaction at being once more outside the prison walls made me forget the risk we ran of being recaptured, and the difficulties we had still to undergo. I stood anxiously watching for the appearance of my companions; for it was so dark that I could not distinguish them even at the short distance between the ground and the window. In moments such as those, each one appears an age, and I trembled for our safety. At last I saw a figure gliding down the rope. It was Pedro. Scarcely had he reached the ground when the sailor was by my side.
“Now, mates,” he whispered, “let’s hold on to each other, and put our best legs foremost. I’ve a canoe ready on the banks of the river, and we may be far away before our flight is discovered.”
We lost no time in words, but taking each other’s hands that we might not be separated, we ran as fast as we could across the square, guided by the sailor, who had taken the bearings of some lights he told us to steer by. Owing to the stormy weather and the late hour, no one was crossing the square; indeed, even the most callous were probably inclined to avoid the spot where the Indians had been executed in the morning. We must have passed close to it. At last we reached the side of the river, but had not hit the place where the sailor had left the canoe. Here was another difficulty. Could any one have removed it? We groped about for some time in vain.
“Can you both swim?” asked the sailor.
“Yes; but it’s a long way across, and there are perhaps crocodiles in the water,” I answered.
“Better be drowned or swallowed up by a crocodile, my lads, than retaken by those land-sharks,” he observed. “It must come to that if we cannot find the canoe.”
Pedro and I agreed to this; and, though we had not our full strength, we prepared to take the swim, trusting to the brave fellow’s assistance.
“Well, I see there’s some risk, so we’ll have another hunt for the canoe first,” he observed. “Stay, I think it’s lower down the stream.”