ke, and feeling fearful lest my eyes had been deceived by
fleeting night shadows.

Resting upon his breast, one hand shading his eyes, he peered long in
the direction indicated before venturing to reply.

"There is a shade of something yonder," he admitted at last. "It rises
a trifle above us, and almost directly out from this edge. 'T is hard
to say of what it consists, yet 'tis of a peculiar shape, causing me to
think of the foreyard of a big ship."

"Exactly what I name it," I replied, set at ease by his prompt
decision. "How far would you suppose the thing to lie from where we
are?"

He studied the barely visible object long and carefully, shading his
eyes again with his hands the better to concentrate his gaze upon that
misty blot.

"It is like a jump in the dark, my son, to attempt guessing at so
visionary a thing. At times it seemeth to fade away altogether, yet
back it cometh once more into the same spot; from where I lie it might
be twenty, or it might be forty, feet."

"Saint Giles! not so bad a guess either. I figured it at thirty this
afternoon from the bank below, nor am I apt to prove far wrong in such
judgment. Truss up this confounded skirt of mine, while I uncoil the
rope for a toss."

He opened his eyes wide in amazement.

"Do you hope to cast the loop over the end of the spar?"

"Ay, that offers the only opening to get aboard unobserved," I replied,
loosening as I spoke the slender rope coil from about my waist. "Nor
would it be any trick if the light were a trifle better. As it is, I
may miss a throw or two in getting firm hold. It would prove risky
business attempting to pass across a line insecure at one end. Lie
down now, _pere_, and keep as quiet as if you were dead."

In instant obedience to my words the priest stretched himself at full
length behind the low wooden gutter. Rising cautiously to my feet, I
passed the cord with utmost care through my fingers, testing its
strands again, making certain it remained perfectly free for the toss.
For a moment I stood thus, swaying forward at the very edge of the
roof, my eyes measuring again and again the hazy, uncertain distance
stretching away toward that slight undulating shadow. It was
practically impossible to determine where the extreme end of the spar
terminated in air, yet as nearly as possible I made selection for my
point of aim, and, with three noiseless circles about my head to give
it impetus, shot the rope forth int