th, so that the rope would not wave out in the wind and
either betray them or become displaced.

It was insecure enough, anyway, but they felt it ought to be left in
readiness for a flight that might have no second to waste. Now, with
eyes sharply challenging the shadows, they stole along the edge of
the palace.

Staring up at the building, Billy stopped. "Here's a place a story
and a half high--you could almost climb up by those carvings without
any ladder. And there's the next higher roof back of it--and then
you must go there to the left."

"I can make it," said Falconer, surely. "Now how much time shall I
allow you for your sawing--fifteen minutes?"

"Guess you'd better," Billy reflected, and they compared watches.

It was tremendously difficult to arrive at any sort of concerted
action on this bewildering expedition, but they were hoping to
achieve it. Their plan had the simplicity of all desperate measures.
One from below and one from above they were to make their way to
that rose room and fight the way out with the girl. They considered
it wiser to come from two directions, for if one were discovered and
the alarm raised, the other had still a chance of getting off with
Arlee, and if one were trying to escape, the other could cover his
flight. They had drawn straws for their positions, and Billy had
been slightly relieved that the entrance from below, which he
considered a trifle more difficult, had fallen to him. He felt
responsible, as well as he might, for Falconer's neck.

Now he steadied one narrow ladder of poles while Falconer crept up
it and then drew it up after him; and after a few moments of
waiting, crouched in the shadow, Billy saw the Englishman's figure
reappear against the sky on top of a higher roof. The route over
the old buildings had been found, so Billy turned and crept forward
along the wall, carrying the last long ladder of poles in his hand.
It was an unwieldy thing to carry and it distracted his attention
harassingly.

"My job," said he to himself, "is evidently to make a racket and
draw their fire from below while that red-headed chap carries Arlee
off from above. Well, I hope to the Lord he does. When I think of
her here----"

But it was unnerving to think of her here, so he didn't. He kept his
mind steadily on the plan. He had reached the stone steps that led
from the garden to the harem now, and laying down his pole-like
ladder he slipped up them and turned the handle.

B