Up went the window—slowly, carefully, noiselessly—and out crept Jack upon that roof. It was steep, but he stole along the ridge. Now he could reach the tree.
"It's an apple-tree," he said. "I can reach that longest branch, and swing off, and go down it hand over hand."
At an ordinary time, few boys would have thought it could be done, and Jack had to gather all his courage to make the attempt; but he slid down and reached for that small, frail limb, from his perilous perch in the gutter of the roof.
"Now!" said Jack to himself.
Off he went with a quick grasp, and then another lower along the branch, before it had time to break, but his third grip was on a larger limb, below, and he believed he was safe.
"I must be quick!" he said. "Somebody is striking a light in that room!"
Hand over hand for a moment, and then he was astride of a limb. Soon he was going down the trunk; and then the window (which he had closed behind him) went up, and he heard Deacon Abrams exclaiming:
"He couldn't have got out this way, could he? Stop thief! Stop thief!"
"Let 'em chase!" muttered Jack, as his feet reached the ground. "This is the liveliest kind of news-item!"
Jack vaulted over the nearest fence, ran across a garden, climbed over another fence, ran through a lot, and came out into a street on the other side of the square.