Here, with some trouble, they succeeded in finding a dagger among the heap, and they then felt their way on, until they reached the pile of sacks.

These were packed to within a foot of the deck beams, and there was but just room for them to crawl in at the top.
"Whatever you do, do not bump against the beams," Francis said.

"Any noise of that sort, from below, would at once excite attention.

Now do you be quiet, while I find a spot to begin upon." Commencing at a junction of two planks, Francis began, with the dagger, to cut a hole of some three or four inches across, but tapering rapidly as it went in.

After waiting for some ten minutes, he touched the man lying next to him, placed his hand on the hole he had begun, and then moved aside to allow him to continue the work.
In an hour a hole was made in a two inch plank, and this was soon enlarged until it was an inch in diameter.