"How are you getting on?"
"It's them behind, sir. I'll lay down flat as I can, and you whisper
back as we're all right. Sound travels easy."
I found that I could readily turn, and I did as he proposed that I
should, hearing my voice sound so smothered that it startled me again.
But the tapping was resumed; and answering it again, I turned and went
on once more in silence till all at once my way was stopped by a crate
which touched the beams overhead.
"Is this where you got to, Barney?" I said.
"Where there's a big crate thing, sir, as goes right up? That's it."
"Then we can't get any farther?"
"I don't think I can; but that tapping wouldn't come so plain if there
warn't a way. It weer too tight for me; but you can try if you can't
get round the end of the stopper. It may be big enough for you."
I would have given anything to get back now, feeling as I did that I had
done enough; but I plucked up my courage, and began feeling about to
make the discovery that while one end of the crate was closed solidly
against the next package, the other end did not touch.
"There's a way here," I said to my companion, who was sitting up behind
me, having found a place where he could let his legs go down.
"Well, sir, that's what I thought," said Barney. "But it's too small
for me, arn't it?"
"Yes, far too small," I said. "I don't think I could get along. Is it
any use to try?"
Tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap.