ON THE ROOF
When I returned with a key and the information that the way to the roof ran through the janitor's tool-room at the far end of the hall, I found my young people already out there. Worth was trying the tool-room door.
"Got the key?" he called. "It's locked."
"Yes." I took my time fitting and turning it. "How did you know this was the room?"
"I didn't," briefly. "Bobs walked out here, and I followed her. She said we'd want into this one."
She'd guessed right again! I wheeled on her, ejaculating,
"For the love of Mike! Tell a mere man how you deduced this stairway. Feminine intuition, I suppose."
I hadn't meant to be offensive with that last, but her firm little chin was in the air as she countered,
"Is it a stairway? It might be a ladder, you know."
It was a ladder, an iron ladder, as I found when I ushered them in. My eyes snapped inquiry at her.