The rope was made fast to my left wrist. Then I mounted on
Marie's shoulders, and climbed--not without quavering--through
the window, taking as little time over it as possible, for a bell
was already proclaiming midnight.
All this I had done on the spur of the moment. But outside,
hanging by my hands in the darkness, the strokes of the great
bell in my ears, I had a moment in which to think. The sense of
the vibrating depth below me, the airiness, the space and gloom
around, frightened me. "Are you ready?" muttered Marie, perhaps
with a little impatience. He had not a scrap of imagination, had
Marie.
"No! wait a minute!" I blurted out, clinging to the sill, and
taking a last look at the bare room, and the two dark figures
between me and the light. "No!" I added, hurriedly.
"Croisette--boys, I called you cowards just now. I take it back!
I did not mean it! That is all!" I gasped. "Let go!"
A warm touch on my hand. Something like a sob.
The next moment I felt myself sliding down the face of the house,
down into the depth.
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