"I have got it as you ordered it, master," Paolo said as they came
out of the shop, "but it would never bear our weight."

"I think it might do in case of necessity," Hector said. "In fact,
I am sure it would. It does not require a great thickness of new
cord to hold a man's weight; but I don't want it for that."

Paolo walked silently along for some time, and then said: "If it
is not wanted to carry our weight, master, I cannot think what it
is wanted for."

"It is wanted to get the hook down with. You see when we get down
into the street there would be little chance of getting the hook
off its hold. We shall most likely want it again, and certainly we
shall want the rope. I have been puzzling over it, and I think I
have found a way at last. My idea is to fasten this thin rope to
the point of the hook, then, on pulling upon it the point will
rise until it gets level with the top of the wall on which it is
fixed, and we can then shake it down without difficulty. I don't
know whether it will act, but I think that it ought to do so; an
upward pull at the point must, I should think, lift it as far as
the edge."


"I should think that it must," Paolo agreed. "I should never have
thought of that."

"We will try it on this last division wall. I have no doubt about
it myself, because even if it did not pull it quite to the top