“We won’t climb it,” said Jim. “See! right here! Three empty boxes and a board! We are going over the roof.” “But we can’t get down on the other side,” whispered another boy. “Yes, we can,” replied Jim triumphantly, as he held up a coil of small rope that he pulled out of a box. “Wait and see. Let’s pile up these things.” It was easy work for five strong, active boys, to put those boxes one on top of another, but even then the board only reached from the topmost box to a little above the eaves of the building. “Now, boys,” said Jim, “soon as I’m up, throw me the end of the rope.” Not many young fellows could have gone up that board as he did, or, afterward, up the steep, slippery slates of the roof, with a coil of rope in one hand. It was first-rate gymnastics, with a chance for a slide and a heavy fall, but Jim reached the ridge, just as one of his followers came up over the eaves, after making several small failures to climb the board. “Now for the rope,” said Jim, as he passed it around a chimney that came up through the ridge, tied it at the ends and threw the loop down toward the head of the board. He could hold it steady and it was all they needed. Very quickly, all five were perched in a row, like blackbirds on a fence. “What’s next?” they asked. “Glad we all had so much practice on the training ship,” replied Jim. “It takes a sailor to go down by a rope. This one’s long enough to hang down, double, almost to the ground. It won’t be much of a drop, then. I’ll go first. Hold hard! Steady, now!” Even yet, he had not told them the whole of his plan, but they were learning to trust him and they were eager enough to do just as he said. On the whole, they had at least learned soldierly obedience and good discipline in the school they were escaping from. Down went Jim, hand over hand, to the eaves on the outer side of the engine house, and then he disappeared. They had hardly been able to see him, anyhow, and now they waited, half shivering, till a warning tug at the rope told them he had safely reached the ground. He had really found little difficulty in doing that and the hardest share really fell upon the last boy of all, for it seemed to him as if the other four had taken all night for it. “Wait, now,” said Jim, as he untied the ends of the rope. “Leave it,” said one of the boys. “We don’t want it any more.” “I’ll show you,” said Jim, as he drew down the full length of the untied rope, coiled it and made a hank of it. “If they find it on the other side, they won’t know how we got down.” He threw it with all his might; it cleared the roof-ridge and down it slid into the parade-ground to keep its own secret. “What are we going to do, now, Jim?” “Come on!” he said. “Follow me!--The lifeboat on the tug!” “I just want to yell!” exclaimed the boy he had called Joe. “We’re going to beat ’em, this time.” “Glad it’s so dark,” said Jim. “Don’t you make a sound! Step carefully!”