He began to despair, but a shuffling noise at the trap-door moved him to further action.
He ran to the extreme end of the roof, and found, much to his delight, the roofs of houses, some twelve or thirteen feet below.
He looked over the parapet of the warehouse at the roof beneath him.
He cast a furtive glance at the trap, which he discovered was being removed.
The police were on his track.
Urged almost to desperation, he laid hold of one of the coping stones of the parapet; he threw his legs and body over, and then for a moment or so hung in mid air.
To let go and drop on the roof of one of the houses was indeed a desperate alternative.
But, desperate as it was, he felt that the attempt must be made.
He had by this time gone too far to recede.
He let go his hold of the coping stone, and dropped upon the slanting tiles of the house beneath.