Vincenzo was at length convinced, and Craig opened his suit-case. There was little in it except several coils of insulated wire; some tools, a couple of packages wrapped up, and a couple of pairs of overalls. In a moment Kennedy had donned overalls and was smearing dirt and grease over his face and hands. Under his direction I did the same.
Taking the bag of tools, the wire, and one of the small packages, we went out on the street and then up through the dark and ill-ventilated hall of the tenement. Half-way up a woman stopped us suspiciously.
“Telephone company,” said Craig curtly. “Here's permission from the owner of the house to string wires across the roof.”
He pulled an old letter out of his pocket, but as it was too dark to read even if the woman had cared to do so, we went on up as he had expected, unmolested. At last we came to the roof, where there were some children at play a couple of houses down from us.
Kennedy began by dropping two strands of wire down to the ground in the back yard behind Vincenzo's shop. Then he proceeded to lay two wires along the edge of the roof.
We had worked only a little while when the children began to collect. However, Kennedy kept right on until we reached the tenement next to that in which Albano's shop was.
“Walter,” he whispered, “just get the children away for a minute now.”
“Look here, you kids,” I yelled, “some of you will fall off if you get so close to the edge of the roof. Keep back.”
It had no effect. Apparently they looked not a bit frightened at the dizzy mass of clothes-lines below us.
“Say, is there a candy-store on this block?” I asked in desperation.