Now, the little window of the room in which Inez resided, was not very far from the ground. That is to say, at all events, the lower portion of its balcony certainly was not above twelve feet from the green sward actually below it. The idea struck Blodget, then, that through that window he must get, and through it again he must make his way out with his captive. How he meant to overcome the very many difficulties that still stood in his way, it is impossible to conceive; but he had not come totally unprepared with the means of action. Coiled up in the pockets of the clothes which he had worn all the latter part of the day, he had had a couple of ropes of silk, with a hook at the end of each of them. He expected, and not without reason, too, that they would be to him of the very greatest possible assistance. It took him some little consideration before he would venture to cross the bit of lawn that separated him yet from the house; and, strange to say, while he was so considering, another circumstance began to operate in his favor. A soft, but rather thick and penetrating rain began to fall. ‘Aha’ he said, ‘this is capital. This will clear the ground of all loiterers. This is providential.’ Letting the rain continue for some five minutes or so until he considered it had had all its effect, Blodget crossed the lawn, and stood beneath the balcony of the window. Blodget was very acute in his sense of hearing, and he now bent that faculty to the very utmost to listen if any one were moving in the rooms above. All was as still as the very grave. ‘She has gone to bed,’ thought Blodget. ‘Well, I don’t care. I must take her away, and take her I will.’ A very dim light was close to the window. ‘I wonder,’ thought Blodget, ‘if she will scream before I can get a gag put into her mouth? If she does, I may have dangers to encounter; but I never yet abandoned an enterprise on that account, nor will I now.’ Truly dangerous was a climate in which such a man as Blodget lived. He now looked carefully to the right and to the left of the place of which he was, so as to assure himself that no sentinel was close at hand, and then he boldly flung up the cords to which the hooks were attached, to the balcony. It took him three or four efforts before he succeeded in getting the hooks to hold fast, and then he found that the cords easily suspended him. This was rather a ticklish part of the business to climb up to the balcony now with the possibility, if not the probability, that some one might see him; but yet he meant either to do it or abandon the whole affair at once, so he set about it with a feeling that might be said to approach to recklessness. He reached the top of the parapet of the balcony, and rather rolled over it than stepped over, so that he exposed himself to observation to as small an extent as, under the circumstances, it was at all possible so to do.