ll soon
make them hear; the verger sits on that bench close by.'

Jack hammered with his fists on the door, and the sound echoed through
the hollow building. Then the three children waited, and listened,
hoping to hear the verger's footsteps approaching the door. And when
some moments had passed and no one came, he knocked again, and once more
they waited and listened. But it was all in vain; no one heard the
rapping on the door, no one came to let the little prisoners out.

'He must have gone into the crypt,' said Sally; 'he goes down there when
folks come to see the cathedral; maybe he'll be back soon.'

But Jack did not answer her; he was on his knees on the ground, peeping
under the crack of the door.

'What can you see, Jack?' asked Poppy.

'It's all dark,' said Jack; 'the cathedral lights are out, and
everybody's gone home; whatever shall we do?'

The two little girls sat down on the bottom step, and cried and sobbed
as if their hearts would break.

'What's the use of crying?' said Jack, rather angrily; 'what we've got
to do is to try to get out. Let's climb up again, and get out on the
roof; maybe we can make some one hear if we shout loud enough.'

'It's so dark up there now,' said Sally, glancing fearfully at the
narrow, winding staircase; 'we can't see our way a bit.'

'Never mind that, we can _feel_,' said the boy; 'come along.'

'Oh! I shall fall--I shall fall!' sobbed Sally.

'You stop down here, then,' said her brother. 'Poppy and I will go.'

'Oh no,--no,--no!' cried the frightened child; 'don't leave me; I don't
want to stop here by myself.'

Very slowly and carefully the three children felt their way up the steep
steps, and many a tear fell on the old stones as the girls followed
Jack. It seemed a long, long way to them, far farther than it had done
before; and the wind, which had been rising all the afternoon, came
howling and whistling through the narrow window-slits in the tower, and
made them cold and shivering.

At last they reached the open place on the roof, but they found it was
impossible to stand upon it; such a hurricane of wind had arisen, that
they would have been blown over had they tried to leave the shelter of
the tower. So all they could do was to remain where they were, and to
shout as loudly as they could for help; but the cathedral close was very
large, and no one passed through it on that cold, stormy evening, and
the street was far away--so far that the voices of th