He could not see very far, but he saw that there were no huts on that side, and that it was not far to the woods, and calculated that the boy could get to them without being observed.

“All right, J.W., the coast is clear,” he said.  “You are sure you know the way and the general direction?  What is it, in fact?”

“About south, and I will get in sight of the water as soon as I can.  It will not be dark for some little time yet, and I ought to get to the yacht before sunset or a little after at any rate.”

“Very good.  Keep in the open as much as you can after you get away from here, and don’t run too fast.”

“All right.  Are you ready?” and the boy stood on the chest beside Jack, looking up into the latter’s face with such an air of determination that he laughed and said: 

“Yes, I’m ready, up with you!” and Jack lifted the little fellow to the window level, and put him through, Percival saying in a low tone: 

“It’s all right.  I don’t hear a sound.  I imagine they are all away somewhere, for I can neither see nor hear anything.”

“Out you go!” said Jack, dropping the boy to the ground, and looking out to see that he was all right.  “Now then, cut!”

He watched the boy till he disappeared in the woods, and then as he neither saw any one nor heard anything of an alarming nature, he said in a tone of great relief: 

“He is all right, and I believe he will get there without trouble.  I had an idea he would, or I would not have let him go.”

“There he is, only half a boy, you might say,” said Percival, “but ready to undertake anything for us, no matter how dangerous and there are those big overgrown bullies, Herring and Merritt, who would go all to bits if they had the half of this to do.  I tell you, Jesse W. Smith is worth both of them in a lump, and with considerable on his side of the ledger after that, Jack.”

“Yes, so he is,” agreed Jack.

“And now we will simply have to wait, I suppose?”

“I don’t see anything else.  The window is too small for us and the door seems to be very strong and heavy, and securely locked.  No, I considered these points before I let the boy go.”

“But suppose our man with the white mustache should return and miss him?” asked Percival.

“Well, we will put the bar back in its place, put the chest in the corner, and place our coats in a neat pile over there where it is darkest.  There are things that we can put under them, and there is the boy fast asleep after his tramp through the woods.”

“A good idea, Jack!  You are full of resources.  Now I would never have thought of a way out of the trouble, but only of the trouble itself.”

They replaced the bar so that no one would know by a casual glance that it had been tampered with, put the chest back where they had taken it from, and, gathering up a few loose articles from the floor, made a bundle of them and spread their coats over it.