"Climb into my bunk, Bunny, and you shall see."
I did so, but could see nothing. Raffles reached across me and
tapped the ventilator, a sort of trapdoor in the wall above his
bed, some eighteen inches long and half that height. It opened
outwards into the ventilating shaft.
"That," said he, "is our door to fortune. Open it if you like;
you won't see much, because it doesn't open far; but loosening a
couple of screws will set that all right. The shaft, as you may
see, is more or less bottomless; you pass under it whenever you
go to your bath, and the top is a skylight on the bridge. That's
why this thing has to be done while we're at Genoa, because they
keep no watch on the bridge in port. The ventilator opposite
ours is von Heumann's. It again will only mean a couple of
screws, and there's a beam to stand on while you work."
"But if anybody should look up from below?"
"It's extremely unlikely that anybody will be astir below, so
unlikely that we can afford to chance it. No, I can't have you
there to make sure. The great point is that neither of us should
be seen from the time we turn in. A couple of ship's boys do
sentry-go on these decks, and they shall be our witnesses; by
Jove, it'll be the biggest mystery that ever was made!"
"If von Heumann doesn't resist."
"Resist! He won't get the chance.
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