"''Ush, you 'uzzy,' said Mrs. Middlemore, clapping her hand on the girl's mouth. 'What do yer mean by being outside instead of in?'
"'What do I mean?' retorted Sophy, with an air of great enjoyment. 'Why, 'cause I couldn't git in. I knocked and knocked, jest as you're doing of now, but nobody answered.'
"'I understood,' said our reporter to Mrs. Middlemore, 'that you generally carry your latchkey with you.'
"'So I do sir, but I didn't 'ave it in my pocket when the perlice officer come; it was downstairs on the kitchen table. I wanted to go down and fetch it, but he wouldn't let me wait a minute. "If yer ain't quick," he said, "yer'll git yerself in trouble;" and he bundled me out of the 'ouse. That's 'ow it was, sir.'
"'The question is,' said our reporter, 'how we are to get in. Is there a back way?'
"'No, sir.'
"'Then we must get in by the front door or window. The window will be the easiest. It is fastened inside in the usual way, I suppose?'
"'Yes, sir.'
"'The easiest plan will be for me to break one of the panes in such a manner as to attract as little notice as possible, and then put my hand through and undo the fastening. Then we can lift the sash, and Sophy can get in and unlock the street door for us.'
"I'm game,' said Sophy, to whom any task of this kind was especially inviting.