culty, to reach
the ceiling. This platform was only sufficiently large to allow two to
work at a time; so while Captain Fleetwood and Bowse mounted on it, the
other two held it firm, and handed up the wedges and cross bars they had
manufactured. As they were, of course, afraid to make any noise by
hammering in the wedges, they first worked away with their knives, till
they had formed grooves to insert the edge of several; they then placed
the ends of the handspikes against them, and pressing those with all
their force, they had the satisfaction of seeing that the planking began
to separate. They persevered in their efforts, and the planks being
fortunately old and rotten, and exceedingly dry, from the heat of
summer, the nails easily drew out, and they were soon able to insert
their cross bars. They had begun making the hole in the roof, some
little way from the wall, and it was fortunate they had done so. In a
quarter of an hour they had removed enough of the planking to enable
Fleetwood to draw himself through, when he found that heavy stones were
placed on the outer edges to keep them down on the wall, and that they
had had a narrow escape of their coming tumbling through upon their
heads; or of having sent them crashing over, with a loud noise, on the
ground on the outside. As it was, a quantity of rubbish had fallen
through, and they found that the whole roof was covered with it, and
that they had by chances selected the spot where it lay the thinnest.

Bowse followed Captain Fleetwood to the roof, and they then assisted
their Greek friend and Pietro to ascend, after the latter had
extinguished the light, replaced the table bench and casks as before,
and swept the rubbish under the straw. As he was a light, active man,
by stretching down their hands as he stood on one of the casks, they
were able to drag him through on the roof. They then carefully closed
down the planking, and swept some rubbish over it, so that it would
require a little examination, to discover by what means they had made
their escape.

So far, they were once more in the open air and at liberty to proceed,
if they could reach the ground. The night was like the previous one,
with a clear sky and the stars shining brightly, while the moon had
become much too small to give more light than just sufficient to enable
them to find their way.

The hazard now was to descend without making a noise, for the night was
so serene that the slightest