The Count of Monte Cristo

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prisoner's escape. As the stranger asked the question, he dragged the
table beneath the window.

"Climb up," said he to Dantes. The young man obeyed, mounted on the
table, and, divining the wishes of his companion, placed his back
securely against the wall and held out both hands. The stranger, whom
as yet Dantes knew only by the number of his cell, sprang up with an
agility by no means to be expected in a person of his years, and, light
and steady on his feet as a cat or a lizard, climbed from the table to
the outstretched hands of Dantes, and from them to his shoulders;
then, bending double, for the ceiling of the dungeon prevented him from
holding himself erect, he managed to slip his head between the upper
bars of the window, so as to be able to command a perfect view from top
to bottom.

An instant afterwards he hastily drew back his head, saying, "I thought
so!" and sliding from the shoulders of Dantes as dextrously as he had