Jack asked.

"When you are at the top," said the blacksmith, "you will loosen a
stone and drop it on the head of one of your friends
yonder"--indicating the courtyard with a jerk of his head. "That will
settle him. At the same moment I'll overwhelm the other. We must
prevent them firing at any costs. But don't miss him, whatever you do,
or we are worse off than before."

"No," said Jack, "I shall aim very carefully. I will wait till he is
exactly underneath, and then, plob! It will get him on his topknot."

The ivy was, of course, out of sight of the two sentries so long as
they stayed at their posts; but, as anyone who knows Myddelton Hall,
which is little altered since that time, will understand, a very
trifling extension of his beat would bring one of them into a position
to command the carriagedrive which Jack had to cross to get from the
shrubbery to the house. However, the boy sauntered off, looking as
aimless as a piece of floating thistledown, and gained the house
unperceived. Directly he was past the soldiers' line of vision he
became brisker, and in a few minutes the party in the shrubbery, who
had by this time returned to their original post, and at the point in
the bushes nearest to the sentries, saw him scrambling over the roof.

"If he were hurt," said the blacksmith, "the Colonel would never
forgive me."

"He's climbed that too often for danger of accidents," said Philip.

Jack was now crawling along a coping just over the farther sentry, and
they watched him picking out the mortar from between two big stones
with his knife. In five minutes he had it loose, and, grasping it with
both hands, he pushed it close to the edge, and then peeped over. The
soldier was some yards from the plumb. Jack looked down at the
shrubbery for guidance. The smith raised his hand to signify patience.
Jack waited. Breathlessly the ambushed party watched the two soldiers,
who were now talking together. Would they never return to their doors?
Five anxious minutes passed, and then, with a look round, Jack's man
began to move nearer his position under the coping. Once he stopped,
and, retracing half a step, called out a facetious after-thought. The
boys grunted impatiently, and the blacksmith swore in his beard. Then
the soldier took another step back, laughing at his wit, yet moving
irresolutely, as though he had another word or two to add to the joke.
After this his progress backwards was steady.

At last, when he was wi