They had to get down on their hands and knees and crawl part of the way across.  Had they been less agile they never could have made it, and just here it was seen how wisely the scout master had acted when he failed to choose clumsy if willing Billy Worth as one of their number.

Once upon the smaller roof covering the turret tower, Hugh found that it was a matter of impossibility to lower themselves so as to gain the slits of windows in the walls, made more for appearances than for any particular use.  And even though they were able to reach one of these he doubted whether any of them could manage to crawl through.

There was nothing for it then but to attack the roof with the ax, which Alec had managed to cling to through all his climbing.  Hugh snatched the implement from the hands of his churn, and went at it.  The ax bit into the roof with each hearty blow, and Hugh worked like a beaver, knowing that there was constant danger they might be caught by the creeping flames before their object had been accomplished.

Afterwards, when speaking about their experiences up there on that roof, Alec and Monkey Stallings always declared they had never seen any one wield an ax with more telling effect than Hugh did on that wonderful occasion.  Those who were below had a fair view of what was going on aloft, whenever the wind carried the smoke aside, as their encouraging cheers testified from time to time.

When Hugh found his muscles beginning to lag, he handed the implement over to Alec, knowing the other must be fairly wild to have a hand in the labor.  How the chips did fly and scatter with each and every blow of that descending ax!  Alec put every ounce of vim he could muster into each stroke, while if he faltered there was Monkey Stallings opening and shutting his two hands as though eager to take up the good work.

Then came the critical moment when the ax cut through, and a small gap appeared out of which a spiral of smoke began to ooze.  Larger grew the hole, and then Alec, dripping with perspiration, fairly gasping for breath, handed the ax over to the third member of the group, after which the work continued furiously.

Finally Hugh stopped Monkey Stallings and made motions that he was about to go through the aperture.  The others saw him vanish, and a brief but terrible period of suspense followed.  Then through the gap in the roof appeared the head of the young woman who was playing the romantic part of the Jewess, Rebecca.  Through all this tragic happening she, must have managed to retain her self-possession in a way that was simply wonderful, for she was now able to do her part toward working up through the hole in the roof, assisted by the two scouts above.

When those below discovered how success had thus far rewarded the efforts of Hugh and his equally quick-witted fellow scouts, the cheer that broke forth could have been heard miles away, so great was their admiration for the work of the three boys.