Old Hughy then tried throwing water on them.

The water was more efficacious than the brimstone, and before Willis returned the old man was able to cut out a section of the tree trunk and fill his two pails with the dripping combs--all of which I viewed not any too happily from aloft.
Willis appeared at last with the coil of rope.

With him came Addison and Halstead, much out of breath, and a few minutes later the old Squire himself arrived.

They said that grandmother Ruth also was on the way.
Willis, it seems, had spread alarming reports of my predicament.
Willis and Addison tied numerous knots in the rope so that it should not slip through my hands and knotted a flat stone into the end of it.

Then they took turns in throwing it up toward me until at length I caught it and tied it firmly to the limb on which I was sitting.