ojer on guard set him
up against the butt of the foremast to sober off in the night air."

I experienced difficulty in repressing a laugh at the words, but the
two fellows were going down by this time, grumbling in their beards
because they had discovered nothing wrong as reward for their trip
aloft, so I contented myself by silently pressing my companion's arm,
although doubtless he had comprehended no word of the conversation.

We rested there motionless, with no attempt at speech, for fully twenty
minutes before I ventured to haul in the line which dangled downward
from my hand. Everything remained quiet below, and, coiling it
carefully over my arm, I noiselessly arose to my feet once more,
poising myself to essay a second cast. As straight this time as an
arrow from the taut string of a bow the noose sped silently away into
the darkness. I felt a thrill of delight tingle through me as the end
settled softly over the end of the vague, distant spar. I drew the
cord taut and firm, not a sound breaking the intense stillness closing
us in like a wall. A heavy wooden post, with a pulley attachment,
stood behind where we rested, probably fitted there for hauling up
heavy bales of cotton. Creeping back, I wound the slack of the rope
about its base, drawing it as tight as possible, and then placed the
end in the hands of the observant and wondering priest, who continued
to creep after me like a shadow.

"Now all I expect of you is to hold hard on this rope until I get
across on to the spar," I whispered. "When I give three distinct jerks
on the cord, then let loose of your end; but drop it slowly, mind you,
_pere_, so I can draw it in without noise. You had better creep to the
edge of the roof with it before you release your hold. Do you
understand?"

He nodded silently, his eyes gazing unwaveringly into mine. I held
forth my hand to him, moved by the sudden impulse of such a movement.
As he gave me his own in response it felt as cold as ice, yet I marked
his grip was strong.

"As soon as I coil in the rope you had better creep down and go home,"
I explained, speaking slowly, for somehow I felt it strangely hard to
part with this last tie between the present and the uncertain future.
"You can be no further use to me; Madame will be anxious to hear your
report, while it might prove exceedingly awkward for one of your cloth
to be trapped here after this night's work is discovered by the Dons.
So now good-bye; y