"Wake Tayoga and see what he thinks." The Onondaga received the proposal with enthusiasm, and he made the further suggestion that they build high the fire for the sake of deceiving the besiegers.
"And suppose we prop up two or three pieces of fallen tree trunk before it," added Robert.

"Warriors watching on the opposite slopes will take them for our figures and will not dream that we're attempting to escape." That idea, too, was adopted, and in a few minutes the fire was blazing and roaring, while a stream of sparks drifted up merrily from it to be lost in the dusk.

Near it the fragments of tree trunks set erect would pass easily, at a great distance and in the dark, for human beings.
Then, while Willet watched, Robert and Tayoga knotted the vines with quick and dextrous hands, throwing the cable over a bough, and trying every knot with their double weight.

A full two hours they toiled and then they exulted.
"It will reach from the clump of bushes about the fountain to the next clump below, which is low down," said Robert, "and from there we can descend without help." They called Willet, and the three, leaving the crest which had been such a refuge for them and which they had defended so well, descended to the fountain.

At that point they secured their cable with infinite care to the largest of the dwarf trees and let it drop over across a bare space to the next clump of bushes below, a distance that seemed very great, it was so steep.