first thought had been to take her out of bed in his arms, and to carry
her where she might share his chances. But, on consideration, he felt that
this sudden awaking of her, and the impossibility of even whispering any
explanation, would cause her to cry audibly; and the inevitable
indiscretion of one would be fatal to the two. As the Alpine avalanches,
when suspended above the traveller's head, oftentimes (we are told) come
down through the stirring of the air by a simple whisper, precisely on
such a tenure of a whisper was now suspended the murderous malice of the
man below. No; there is but one way to save the child; towards _her_
deliverance, the first step is through his own. And he has made an
excellent beginning; for the spike, which too fearfully he had expected to
see torn away by any strain upon the half-carious wood, stands firmly when
tried against the pressure of his own weight. He has rapidly fastened on
to it three lengths of his new rope, measuring eleven feet. He plaits it
roughly; so that only three feet have been lost in the intertwisting; he
has spliced on a second length equal to the first; so that, already,
sixteen feet are ready to throw out of the window; and thus, let the worst
come to the worst, it will not be absolute ruin to swarm down the rope so
far as it will reach, and then to drop boldly. All this has been
accomplished in about six minutes; and the hot contest between above and
below is steadily but fervently proceeding. Murderer is working hard in
the parlor; journeyman is working hard in the bedroom. Miscreant is
getting on famously down-stairs; one batch of bank-notes he has already
bagged; and is hard upon the scent of a second. He has also sprung a covey
of golden coins. Sovereigns as yet were not; but guineas at this period
fetched thirty shillings a-piece; and he has worked his way into a little
quarry of these. Murderer is almost joyous; and if any creature is still
living in this house, as shrewdly he suspects, and very soon means to
know, with that creature he would be happy, before cutting the creature's
throat, to drink a glass of something. Instead of the glass, might he not