The Emerald Key - By Christopher Dinsdale Page 0,51

apex of the pyramid and quickly threaded a rope through the other. Back and forth he went between the two pulleys until he gave the makeshift rigging a final tug. Satisfied, he passed the loose end of the rope to Beth.

“I’m going to need you to lower me down into the library.”

“Me?” she cried. “I can’t lift you, let alone lower you down by rope!”

“Don’t worry,” he said. “You have more than enough muscle in those farming arms of yours. The pulleys will make the task easy. We need to lower the bag down first anyway. With the crowbar in it, it’s quite heavy, so you’ll get a chance to practise.”

He pulled out a pair of leather work gloves from his back pocket and passed them to her. Skeptically, she pulled the gloves on and took up the rope. Jamie then placed the crowbar back into the bag, hooked it up to the lower pulley, and dropped it through the hatch in the roof. Prepared to be thrown off her feet by the weight of the bag, Beth was amazed at how she could barely feel its heavy weight on the rope. She let out the rope slowly and the bag soon dropped out of sight.

“Wait, Beth,” he said, taking the rope from her. “Make sure you wrap the rope around your back like this and then hold the rope on either side of your waist. Let it slowly slide through your gloves. This way you will always keep control of the rope. That’s it. Good! We’ll turn you into a mountaineer yet.”

“When have you been in the mountains?” she asked.

“While in France, I visited an abbey high in the French Alps.”

“Oh,” she muttered as she let more rope slide through her hands.

Jamie peered through the hatch. It took a while before the bag finally clunked onto the marble floor below.

“You did it. Now play out a little more rope and the bag will fall off the hook. There! Good! Now haul the hook back up!”

After a minute of hauling rope, Beth raised the lower pulley and hook back up through the hatch. Jamie didn’t hesitate to sit on the edge of the hatch, add a length of looped rope to the hook and then place his foot in the loop. He looked over to his young friend, who was turning pale with fright.

“I don’t think I can do this,” she muttered. Her knees were shaking. “I’m going to kill you!”

“I know you can do this, Beth. I need that book. Without it, my life is meaningless. In fact, all of Ireland needs that book. If I don’t get it, I might as well die tonight, right here and now. But don’t worry, I promise that this rig is safe. Really, it won’t be any different from lowering the bag down to the floor. Just think of me as a gigantic sack of potatoes.”

Beth managed a giggle and nodded weakly. “I’m ready, I guess.”

Jamie lowered himself into the hatch. The wooden pyramid groaned at the added weight and Beth had to dig her toes into the raised lip of the hatch, but everything held. Slowly, she eased her grip on the rope and she could feel the coarse fibres slide sideways against her back. Amazingly, Jamie was right. It really wasn’t that much worse than lowering the bag. After a minute of slowly releasing the line through her gloved hands, the rope finally went slack. She didn’t dare let go, however, until she felt several tugs from below. Taking a deep breath, she let the rope fall to her feet. She clambered over to the edge of the hatch and looked down. In the darkness, she could see Jamie waving at her. She waved back and watched as he disappeared out of view. Perhaps it was the tremendous excitement of the moment or the concentration required to track Jamie through the distant library gloom, but Beth was completely unaware of another presence joining them on the rooftop, and that it was moving silently towards her.

Jamie had been in enough libraries to know where to start his search. He moved quickly through the gloom. He ignored the rows of periodicals and rushed past the long oak study tables. There! He spied a glass door hiding among the impressive stacks of printed knowledge. As he approached, he could make out a sign on the door: angus mccall — head librarian. Taking his crowbar, he unceremoniously shoved it into the door jamb and