of you! Mr.
Jamieson is here--not far away. I'm going to tell him where you are."

She marked the location of the window carefully, and then, sure that she
would remember it when she returned, went back to Jamieson.

"Did you locate them? Good work!" he said. "All right. Go back now and
tell them to make a rope of their sheets--good and strong. I saw where
you were standing, and, if they lower that, I don't think we will have
any trouble getting up to their window. I want to be inside that
house--and I don't want Holmes to know I'm there until I'm ready." He
chuckled. "He thinks I'm back in the city. I want him to have a real
surprise when he finally does see me."

Bessie slipped back then and told Dolly what to do, and in a few minutes
the rope of sheets came down, rustling against the ivy. Bessie made the
signal she had agreed on with Jamieson at once--a repetition of the
bird's call, and he joined her. Then he picked her up and started her
climbing up the wall, with the aid of tie rope and the ivy.

For a girl as used to climbing trees as Bessie, it was a task of no
great difficulty, and in a minute she was safely inside the room, and
had turned to watch Jamieson following her. His greater weight made his
task more difficult, and twice those above had all they could do to
repress screams of terror, for the ivy gave way, and he seemed certain
to fall.

But he was a trained athlete, and a skillful climber as well, and,
difficult as the ascent proved to be for him, he managed it, and
clambered over the sill of the window and into the room, breathless, but
smiling and triumphant.

"Oh, I'm so glad you're here, Charlie!" said Eleanor. "There is someone
we can trust, after all, isn't there?"

"Oh, sure!" he said. "Don't you take on, Nell, and don't ask a lot of
questions now. It'll be daylight pretty soon--and, believe me, when the
light comes, there's going to be considerable excitement around these
parts."

"But why did you bring Bessie back here? How did she find you?"

He raised his hand with a warning gesture, and smiled.

"Remember, Nell, no questions!" he said. "All we can do just now is to
wait."

Wait they did--and in silence, save for an occasional whisper.

"That man Holmes has a woman guarding us," whispered Eleanor. "She is
just outside the door in the hall--sleeping there. The idea is to keep
us from leaving these rooms. Evidently they never thought of our going
by the window. We did think of