sat down again in my corner and sulkily watched the first
glimmers of dawn peep in at the little window. It must be about 3 a.m.,
I thought. And that meant four good hours before any chance of a
release came. And as it was, my feet were pretty nearly dead with cold,
and a thin nightgown is not much covering for a fellow's body and arms.
It rather pleased me to think the adventure might end fatally, and that
at my inquest Miss Henniker might be brought in guilty of manslaughter.

It must be breezy, for those leaves have been tapping away at my window
the last minute or so pretty hard. Bother the leaves! And yet, when
you come to think of it, you do not often hear leaves tap as hard as
that! My window will be smashed in if they keep it up at that rate. So
I get up lazily and approach the scene of action.

I nearly screamed as I did so, for there, close up against the window,
was a face! I was so taken aback that it took me a good minute to
recover my wits and perceive that the apparition was none other than my
faithful friend Jack Smith, and that the tapping I had been giving the
leaves such credit for had been his eager attempts to attract my
attention.

I sprang to the window, jubilant, and opened it.

"Oh, Jack! hurrah! However did you get here?"

"Oh, you have _spotted_ me at last, have you?" said he, with a grim
smile. "I've been here five or ten minutes."

"You have!" exclaimed I.

"Yes. My window opened on to this ledge, too; so I didn't see why I
shouldn't come."

"You might have fallen and killed yourself. But I say, Jack, won't you
come in? Even if we do get caught things can't be much worse than they
are."

"I know that--so I think you'd better come out."

"What for?" exclaimed I, in astonishment.

"To get away--anywhere," said he.

In a moment I was up on the window-sill, scrambling out on to the ledge
beside him. The fresh morning breeze blew on my face as I did so, and a
glorious sense of freedom took hold of both our drooping spirits. We
needed no words. Only let us get free!

"Come along," said Jack, crawling along the narrow ledge which ran round
the top of the house.

"How shall we get down?" I asked.

"That's what I want to find out," said Jack. "Isn't there a water-pipe
or something in front?"

Carefully we made our perilous journey round the side of the house
towards the front. Smith leaned over and peered down.

"Yes," said he, "there's a water-pipe we could e