ou
anyway," replied that Walt. "We didn't say how long we'd leave your
hands loose. We aren't going to sit around and keep awake, watching you
guys. When we wake up we untie you again."

We couldn't do anything; and they tied the general's hands and my hands,
but Fitzpatrick begged off.

"I want to use my camera," he claimed. "And I've got only one hand
anyway. I can't untie knots with one hand."

They didn't know how clever Fitz was; so they just moved him and
fastened him by the waist to a tree where he couldn't reach us.

"We'll be watching and listening," they warned. "And if you try any
foolishness you'll get hurt."

They stretched out, and pretended to snooze. I didn't see, myself, how
Fitz could untie those hard knots with his one hand, in time to do any
good. They were hard knots, drawn tight, and the rope was a
clothes-line; and he was set against a tree with the rope about his
body and the knots behind him on the other side of the tree. I didn't
believe that Bat and Walt would sleep hard; but while I waited to see
what would happen next, I dozed off, myself.

Something tapped me on the head, and I woke up in a jiffy. Fitz must
have tossed a twig at me, because when I looked over at him he made the
silence sign. He was busy; and what do you think? He had taken his
camera apart, and unscrewed the lenses, and had focused on the rope
about him. He had wriggled so that the sun shone on the lenses, and a
little spire of smoke was rising from him. Bat and Walt were asleep;
they never made a move, but they both snored. And Fitz was burning his
rope in two, on his body.

It didn't take very long, because the sun was so hot and the lenses were
strong. The rope charred and fumed, and he snapped it; and then he began
on his feet. Good old Fitz! If only he got loose before those two
fellows woke. The general was watching him, too.

Walt grunted and rolled over and bleared around, and Fitz quit
instantly, and sat still as if tied and fooling with his camera. Walt
thought that everything was all right and rolled over; and after a
moment Fitz continued. Pretty soon he was through. And now came the most
ticklish time of all.

He waited and made a false move or two, to be certain that Walt and Bat
weren't shamming; and then he snapped the rope about his body and
gradually unwound it and then he snapped the rope that bound together
his feet. Now he began to crawl for the two fellows. Inch by inch he
moved along, like