About fifty of us resolved to make the attempt.

We made a rope twenty-five or thirty feet long, and strong enough to bear a man, out of strings and strips of cloth.

A stout stick was fastened to the end, so that it would catch on the logs on either side of the gap.

On a night dark enough to favor our scheme, we gathered together, drew cuts to determine each boy's place in the line, fell in single rank, according to this arrangement, and marched to the place.

The line was thrown skillfully, the stick caught fairly in the notch, and the boy who had drawn number one climbed up amid a suspense so keen that I could hear my heart beating.