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, père, 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 into the dense gloom. I heard the opening noose strike something which rattled sharply in the intense silence. Then the line slipped, hung limp, and finally fell dangling down over the edge of the roof. It had failed to catch, and I crouched low, making no effort to draw the loose end back. With the first sound of the blow against the spar the steady tramping across the deck ceased. A moment, and a gruff voice hailed in vigorous Spanish from out the darkness:
"Aloft there! Who is on the foreyard?"
For a brief space there came no answer, although we were made aware of other movements more directly below us. Then some one answered:
"The watch are all here on the forecastle, Señor. It must have been a loose block that rattled."
"Two of you jump into the foretop, and make all fast."
The steady tramping was resumed, while a moment later we became aware of the approach of men climbing through the darkness toward us. We were unable to perceive their shadows, yet their muttered conversation, as they lay out upon the yard, served to fix its actual position more clearly in my mind. I believed I knew where I had so grievously overshot the mark.
"Boca del Dragon!" grumbled one of the fellows hoarsely, seemingly in our very ears. "The Captain is as nervous over those cursed frog-eaters down between decks as if we were anchored off Paree."
"Think you that is the trouble, José?" returned the other in the sprightly voice of a younger man. "I tell thee, comrade, 'tis only that bloody demon of an O'Reilly he is fearful of. I have sailed with the 'old man' in many seas since first I left Sargon, and never expect to see him affrighted of any Johnny Frenchman. But I heard the Admiral say two days agone, as I hung over his boat in the main chains, that if the Captain lost so much as a single prisoner it should cost him his ship. That, I make it, comrade, is why he has n't taken so much as a glass of wine since first they were put aboard of us. Bastante! but he must have acquired a thirst by this time to make his temper red-hot."
The other laughed sourly.
"Poh! I know even a better reason for his going dry than that, Juan. He does n't have chance for a drink alongside of that gray-bellied French priest below. Caramba! it takes him to polish off the red liquor."
"How know you that?"
"Saint Christopher! how know I? Did I not just meet him at the main hatch so drunk he fell over the coamings. The sojer 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, père, 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; you are a man of nerve, even if you are a priest, and I am glad to have been comrade with you."
I heard him answer something as I slowly crept down to the edge, testing again the feel of the rope before venturing to swing off upon it. I was not unaccustomed to those adventures incident to rough life on the frontier; my nerves were not easily jarred by strange experiences, yet I hold it no pleasant sensation to swing out on a thirty-foot line at that height, amid utter darkness, especially when you feel uncertain as to its secure fastening at the farther end. Moreover, the priest's robe hampered my movements sadly, while, being no light-weight, the strands of the small cord cut my hands. I durst not hurry, but took the passage inch by inch, gritting my teeth as I hung suspended above the abyss, lest I might emit a cry. In truth I thought my arms would pull out of the sockets before I finally came alongside the spar. Yet, thanks be to God, the rope held nobly, though it required every pound of remaining strength to haul my dangling body up, that I could rest across the wood before I felt after the standing rope beneath. I clung there weak as a child, trembling like a frightened woman, the cold perspiration standing in drops upon my face.
I have been in far happier situations than that—lying bent nearly double across the yard of an enemy's ship on a black night, but at the moment, so sincerely rejoiced was I to be off that sagging rope, I felt like humming a tune. Yet I contented myself with sliding along the smooth spar until I discovered a firm strand of rope beneath my feet, ventured then to stand upright, and clung for support to the cloth of the sail. At last I gave our signal, and, as the line slackened to my hand, drew it cautiously in, coiling it as it came, until all was once again in my possession. Waiting a moment, to give the père opportunity to begin his retreat, I undid the noose yet wound about the small end of the spar, and, with much care, feeling my uncertain way through the darkness, worked myself slowly along, inward bound toward the mast. Finally, close beside it I again made fast the end of my cord, lowering
