"We are safe now, and can take our place in the bucket. They are satisfied that if we did jump down here we are drowned. And now we must think about climbing up." "Ay, that will require a good deal of thinking," Ralph grumbled. For some time there was silence; then Walter said, "The first thing to do is to cut off the slack of the rope; there are some twelve feet of it. Then we will unwind the strands of that. There are five or six large strands as far as I can feel; we will cut them up into lengths of about a couple of feet, and we ought to be able to tie these to the rope in such a way as not to slip down with our weight. If we tie them four feet apart we can go up step by step; I don't see much difficulty about that." "No," Ralph said much more cheerfully, "I should think that we could manage that." They at once set to work. The rope was cut up and unraveled, and the strands cut into pieces about two feet long. They then both set to work trying to discover some way of fastening it by which it would not slip down the rope. They made many fruitless attempts; each time that a strand was fastened with a loop large enough for them to pass a leg through, it slid down the rope when their weight was applied to it. At last they succeeded in finding out a knot which would hold. This was done by tying a knot close to one end of a piece of the strand, then sufficient was left to form the loop, and the remainder was wound round the rope in such away that the weight only served to tighten its hold. "Shall we begin at once?" Ralph said, when success was achieved. "No, we had better wait until nightfall. The vibration of the rope when our weight once gets on it might be noticed by any one crossing the court-yard." "Do you think we have sufficient bits of rope?" Ralph asked. "Just enough, I think," Walter replied; "there were six strands, and each has made six pieces, so we have thirty-six. I know the well is about a hundred feet deep, for the other day I heard some of the soldiers who were drawing water grumbling over the labor required. So if we put them three feet apart it will take thirty-three of them, which will leave three over; but we had better place them a little over a yard so as to make sure." In a short time the fading brightness of the circle of light far overhead told them that twilight had commenced, and shortly afterward they attached the first strand to the rope some three feet above the water.