me occurred to
me.

"No," he answered in the same tone. "But Marie says he can see a beam
below, which he thinks we can reach."

I sprang up, promptly displaced Marie, and looked out. When my eyes
grew accustomed to the gloom I discerned a dark chaos of roofs and
gables stretching as far as I could see before me. Nearer, immediately
under the window, yawned a chasm--a narrow street. Beyond this was a
house rather lower than that in which we were, the top of its roof not
quite reaching the level of my eyes.

"I see no beam," I said.

"Look below!" quoth Marie, stolidly,

I did so, and then saw that fifteen or sixteen feet below our window
there was a narrow beam which ran from our house to the opposite
one--for the support of both, as is common in towns. In the shadow
near the far end of this--it was so directly under our window that I
could only see the other end of it--I made out a casement, faintly
illuminated from within.

I shook my head.

"We cannot get down to it," I said, measuring the distance to the beam
and the depth below it, and shivering.

"Marie says we can, with a short rope," Croisette replied. His eyes
were glistening with excitement.

"But we have no rope!" I retorted. I was dull--as usual. Marie made
no answer. Surely he was the most stolid and silent of brothers. I
turned to him. He was taking off his waistcoat and neckerchief.

"Good!" I cried. I began to see now. Off came our scarves and
kerchiefs also, and fortunately they were of home make, long and
strong. And Marie had a hank of four-ply yarn in his pocket as it
turned out, and I had some stout new garters, and two or three yards of
thin cord, which I had brought to mend the girths, if need should
arise. In five minutes we had fastened them cunningly together.

"I am the lightest," said Croisette.

"But Marie has the steadiest head," I objected. We had learned that
long ago--that Marie could walk the coping-stones of the battlements
with as little concern as we paced a plank set on the ground.

"True," Croisette had to admit. "But he must come last, because
whoever does so will have to let himself down."

I had not thought of that, and I nodded. It seemed that the lead was
passing out of my hands and I might resign myself. Still one thing I
would have. As Marie was to come last, I would go first. My weight
would best test the rope. And accordingly it was so decided.

There was no time to be lost. At a