these nails in the wall, Madge, you will have something to hold on to
as you climb."

For two hours Madge alternately dug and climbed. In each hole that she
made between the big logs she would set her foot, then hammer a nail
above her head and dig a new opening. At last she actually did climb
up the side of the wall, but her hands were scratched and bleeding, and
her hair and face were covered with mud. She had taken off her dress
skirt, too, as she could climb better in her petticoat.

The three girls below held their breath when she came to the final
stretch, and let go the last rickety nail to fling herself on to the
window sill.

"Eureka, girls!" she called down cheerfully, when she got her breath.
She was holding tightly to the window frame with both hands and
endeavoring to make her voice sound gay, though she was nearly worn out
with the fatigue of her dangerous climb. "Now I shall surely find a
way out for us. Please don't be frightened, Nellie, darling, if I have
to jump. It is not so bad." She gave a little inward shudder as she
looked through the tiny window frame. She could easily wrench the
broken bars away. That was not the trouble. But the window was so
small and the sill so narrow that Madge realized she could not get into
the proper position for a forward spring. However, she had made up her
mind; she might break her leg, or her arm, but she would open that
barred door if she died in doing it.

With determined hands she wrenched at one of the window bars. It gave
way. She seized hold of another, clinging to the sill with her other
hand, her feet in their insecure resting places.