CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.
THE EAGLE'S ESCAPE.
The first thing to be done, was to look to the quality of the rope, and test its strength.

The ladders were already in place, just as they had been left.

The rope once _proved_, there would be nothing further to do, but make it secure to the shank of the bearcoot; ascend the cliff to the highest ledge, reached by the ladders; and then fly the bird.
Should they succeed in getting the creature to go over the cliff--and by some means entangle the cord at the top--they might consider themselves free.

The very thought of such a result--now apparently certain--once more raised their spirits to the highest pitch.
They did not count on being able to "swarm" up a piece of slender cord of nearly fifty yards in length--a feat that would have baffled the most agile tar that ever "slung the monkey" from a topgallant stay.

They had no thoughts of climbing the rope in that way; but in another, long before conceived and discussed.