e rock.

From this isolated ledge it was impossible to reach the ground upon
which the citadel was built.

"You are in a fine fix, Corporal," he growled.

Honest Bavois looked the situation full in the face, and saw that it was
desperate.

"Well, Corporal, your jig is up!" he murmured, "At daybreak they will
find that the baron's cell is empty. They will poke their heads out
of the window, and they will see you here, like a stone saint upon his
pedestal. Naturally, you will be captured, tried, condemned; and you
will be led out to take your turn in the ditches. Ready! Aim! Fire! And
that will be the end of your story."

He stopped short. A vague idea had entered his mind, which he felt might
possibly be his salvation.

It came to him in touching the rope which he had used in his descent
from the prison to the ledge, and which, firmly attached to the bars,
hung down the side of the tower.

"If you had that rope which hangs there useless, Corporal, you could add
it to these fragments, and then it would be long enough to carry you
to the foot of the rock. But how shall I obtain it? It is certainly
impossible to go back after it! and how can I pull it down when it is so
securely fastened to the bars?"

He sought a way, found it, and pursued it, talking to himself all the
while as if there were two corporals; one prompt to conceive, the other,
a trifle stupid, to whom it was necessary to explain everything in
detail.

"Attention, Corporal," said he. "You are going to knot these five pieces
of rope together and attach them to your waist; then you are going to
climb up to that window, hand over hand. Not an easy matter! A carpeted
staircase is preferable to that rope dangling there. But no matter, you
are not finical, Corporal! So you climb it, and here you are in the cell
again. What are you going to do? A mere nothing. You are unfastening the
cord attached to the bars; you will tie it to this, and that will give
you eighty feet of good strong rope. Then you will pass the rope about
one of the bars that remain intact; the rope will thus be doubled; then
you let yourself down again, and when you are here, you have only
to untie one of the knots and the rope is at your service. Do you
understand, Corporal?"

The corporal did understand so well that in less than twenty minutes
he was back again upon the narrow shelf of rock, the difficult and
dangerous operation which he had planned accomplished.

Not without a te