Sharpe edged among sepoys who were carrying one of Major Stokes's bamboo ladders.
He looked to his left and saw Eli Lockhart leading his men down the side of the ravine with one of the discarded bamboo ladders.
He then built some sort of bamboo ladder down into the ravine.
McMillan cut the bars of his shared cell, scaled four walls before dropping over the electrified outer wall using a bamboo ladder.
Propped against the walls around the whirlpool were 12-foot-high bamboo ladders holding white towels.
Not only was the bamboo ladder collapsing, but also soldiers had brought to its base a series of big wooden platforms covered with bronze spikes pushed up through them.
He felt his hold loosen on the bamboo ladder.
Up the bamboo ladder to the second floor of the grass-roofed house, Mr. Zhuang could be heard stirring in the darkened room.
Much higher up, an eighty-foot bamboo ladder precariously met the small square opening to the chiselled vault.
Some carried tall green bamboo ladders for a later display of acrobatic stunts.