Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/282

 himself against the ladder head, Original removed first one boot, then the other. He looped them over his shoulders with his bandanna tied between their straps, and his stockinged feet groped for the first rung of the ladder. Minutes were consumed by his painstaking descent; each rung was first tested for squeaks with a light pressure of the foot before his whole weight was placed upon it.

He stood, at last, on the floor. The gloom was a little less dense than that above, for three pallid squares against the walls marked windows giving starlight. One source of stertorous uproar in the dark seemed almost within touch of his left hand; the other was somewhere across the room. Guessing at the position of the door between two windows, Original cautiously groped a way thither and was rewarded by finding a heavy beam under his hand. He hesitated to draw it back. Luck had played with him generously so far, but dare he presume once more on fickle favor for the sake of insuring a safe retreat in case of difficulties?

With his shoulder against the door to ease any friction, the little fighter inched back the beam. It seemed to him he had moved full forty feet of the thing before a faint creak from