ld their breath as they waited to hear it fall tinkling beyond on
the pavement; but they listened in vain, for the simple reason that it
had fallen into the gutter.

"All right, Mas' Don! Here goes!" said Jem, and he lowered the rope to
its full extent.

"Hadn't I better go first, and try the rope, Jem?"

"What's the good o' your going first? It might break, and then what
would your mother say to me? I'll go; and, as I said afore, if it bears
me, it'll bear you."

"But, if it breaks, what shall I say to little Sally?"

"Well, I wouldn't go near her if I was you, Mas' Don. She might take
on, and then it wouldn't be nice; or she mightn't take on, and that
wouldn't be nice. Hist! What's that?"

"Can't hear anything, Jem."

"More can I. Here, shake hands, lad, case I has a tumble."

"Don't, don't risk it, Jem," whispered Don, clinging to his hand.

"What! After making the rope! Oh, come, Mas' Don, where's your pluck?
Now then, I'm off; and when I'm down safe, I'll give three jerks at the
line, and then hold it steady. Here goes--once to be ready, twice to be
steady, three times to be--off!"

Don's heart felt in his mouth as his companion grasped the rope tightly,
and let himself glide down the steep tiled slope, till he reached the
edge over the gutter; and then, as he disappeared, dissolving--so it
seemed--into the gloom, Don's breath was held, and he felt a singular
pain at the chest.

He grasped the rope, though, as he sat astride at the lower edge of the
opening; and the loosely twisted hemp seemed to palpitate and quiver as
if it were one of Jem's muscles reaching to his hands.

Then all at once the rope became slack, as if the tension had been
removed, and Don turned faint with horror.

"It's broken!" he panted; and he strained over as far as he could
without falling to hear the dull thud of his companion's fall.

Thoughts fly fast, and in a moment of time Don had seen poor Jem lying
crushed below, picked up, and had borne the news to his little wife.
But before he had gone any further, the rope was drawn tight once more,
and as he held it, there came to thrill his nerves three distinct jerks.

"It's all right!" he panted; and grasped the rope with both hands. "Now
then," he thought, "it only wants a little courage, and I can slide down
and join him, and then we're free."

Yes; but it required a good deal of resolution to make the venture.
"Suppose Jem's weight had unwound the rope; suppo