"Hurry, Jack! We've lost too much time. Which way?"
But I reached down first, and hauled up the ladder. The door was shaking under a shower of blows. Kara looked interested as my arm appeared, and her lips shaped themselves for a kiss. Then she saw it was I, and scowled.
"Next house," I panted, and we set off across the roof.
To our left was the inner courtyard, a well of darkness in which tinkled the Fountain of the Lion. To our right lay Sokaki Masyeri. Ahead was a drop of ten feet on to the adjoining roof, the difference in height representing the declining slope of the ground. We made it without any difficulty. The people in this house had been aroused by the shooting, and we could hear their voices and movements. But we shuffled on cautiously, until we came to their courtyard, which ran clear from the street-front to the old sea-wall.
"No choice," grunted Nikka. "Here's a chimney. Knot your rope. It can't be more than twenty-five feet to the ground.'
"Why not slide directly into the street?" I argued.
"They might catch us coming down. Do as I say, and we can make sure whether the coast is clear before we leave the courtyard."
He went down first, and I followed him, scorching my hands, for the rope was thin and had no knots to check one's descent. I was in mid-air when I heard an exclamation beneath me, and a thud.
"What the devil—" I started to whisper.
"Hsst!" came from Nikka. "Don't say anything."