“’T is here,” he whispered.  “Shall I go up?”

“Ay!” I returned hopefully, glad I had restrained the impatience of my tongue.  “But try each rung before you venture stepping on it; they may prove rotten and give way beneath your weight.”

He swung himself up, after carefully tucking in his robe about the waist, but the ladder creaked so alarmingly beneath his tread I durst not venture my heavier weight upon it until he had safely reached the top.  Finally the noise of his climbing ceased, and I could hear a board move high above me.

“Are you up safe?” I questioned in a low voice.

“All safe, praise be to God,” came the cautious response; “but thou wilt do well, friend, to exercise grave care, as the way is bad.”

It required brief exploration to convince us that this second story possessed a strong, firm floor, although there remained some danger of there being traps in it for the hoisting of cotton, while the boards might not extend over the entire surface.  By this time, however, our eyes had grown somewhat accustomed to the intense blackness enveloping us, so the slightest change in the prevailing gloom became quickly apparent.  The air was so fresh and pure, with such a taste of the night in it, I became convinced there must be an opening somewhere close at hand, and whispered the suggestion to my companion.  He proved keener of vision than I, for even as we thus spoke he plucked my sleeve and pointed upward.

“Then surely it will be yonder,” he exclaimed, with more eagerness of voice than I had before marked in him.  “There is certainly a lightness to the atmosphere overhead, as if it came from a direct opening to the sky.”

It appeared true even to me, now that he had pointed out the spot.

“It must be the roof hatch uplifted.  Now if we discover a ladder leading thereto I shall accept it as proof that God guideth us this night, and feel new courage.”

“Our work is of God,” said the pere solemnly, “or I should never be here with you, and engaged upon it.”

“Nor have I ever doubted it, father,” I made haste to answer, creeping cautiously forward across the ill-matched flooring.  “Yet you have been a luckier man than I if never you found yourself in the wrong when you believed it to be right.”

There was a ladder there spliced with bits of rope, as we discovered, yet proving of sufficient strength to up-bear us one at a time.  Thus we were soon out upon the great flat roof, lying prone at the edge, whither we had crept silently, peering cautiously forth upon the black river.  That is, we gazed into the silent mystery where we knew the river must be, yet it was like peering into an impenetrable bank of cloud.  There was something awesome about it, for out yonder, within a few yards of us, swung twenty great vessels of war, manned by thousands of fighting men, while not a sound reached us, except the slight creaking of strained cables, or the occasional dash of a wave against some obstruction in the stream; nor could anything be seen, if I except flitting sparks of light glimmering here and there like lost stars, serving to locate the positions of the various ships in their night anchorage.