It needed but that discouraging cry to
rouse his fighting spirit to a pitch that bordered on recklessness.
His courage took fire, and blazed up in one mighty flame. Nothing,--
nothing could stop him now.
Hastily he wrote: "If you do not come at once, we will force our way
into the house and fight it out with them all. My friend is coming up
the vines. Let him enter the window. Tell him where to go and he will
do the rest. He is a miracle man. Nothing is impossible to him. If he
does not return in ten minutes, I shall follow."
There was no response to this. The head reappeared in the window, but
no word came down.
Sprouse whispered: "I am going up. She will not commit you to
anything. We have to take the matter into our own hands. Stay here. If
you hear a commotion in the house, run for it. Don't wait for me. I'll
probably be done for."
"I'll do just as I damn please about running," said Barnes, and there
was a deep thrill in his whisper. "Good luck. God help you if they
catch you."
"Not even He could help me then. Good-bye. I'll do what I can to
induce her to drop out of the window if anything goes wrong with me
down stairs."
He searched among the leaves and found the thick vine.
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