t our hearts.

Not until Hiram had filled the two small apertures with pieces of cloth
torn from his shirt, did I make any move, and then it can well be
fancied that I strove to rise from the bed without noise.

Hiram was already wrapping his coat around a large rock taken from one
of the casks, which as I understood was intended to represent my head,
and when this had been placed upon the bed, he made a roll of blankets
to form the body. Over this he threw a second blanket, and if so be the
light was dim, I believed, as I stood near the table where Master Lord
would naturally come if he should pay us a visit during the night, that
it was a fair resemblance to myself as he had just seen me.

"I'm allowing that you can make your way out after five minutes of
digging," Hiram whispered to me, and then came to my mind the one
important question which we had failed to settle.

"How shall I cover the hole?"

"That is for you to decide after getting out. My idea is that the turf
may be thrown up in such a way that it can be replaced, and yet I
question much whether it is of any very great importance to conceal the
mouth of the tunnel during such time as you may be absent, for why
should any person, much less Job Lord, be prowling around the rear of
this building in the night?"

With this Hiram dismissed the matter as if believing it was not a vital
one, and instructed me as to how the first portion of the work should be
performed. He was to stand on the table, having pulled out the plug of
cloth from one of the apertures, where it might be possible to hear
what was going on overhead. Archie would take station a few feet
distant, toward the casks, while Harvey remained close by the rubbish
hole. Then if Hiram heard any suspicious sounds he would motion to the
one nearest, who could in turn let the next sentinel know, and this last
might warn me to keep quiet in the tunnel. If perchance Master Lord did
come down into the room, because of being suspicious, or in order to
hold any further converse, I must stay in the passage, and the dummy
play my part the same as if I had gained the outside.

When all this had been decided upon and understood, the lads stationed
themselves, and I crept into the tunnel, finding the passage so very
much narrower than I had counted upon that already was I beginning to
fear I might, through clumsiness, so wedge myself in that it would be
impossible to advance or retreat.

That, however, was