I hurried Evelyn away from the door, over towards the dim line of windows. We had to go. carefully in the dark, and by miscalculation I almost knocked over the little table bearing the bottle and glass. I spoke against Evelyn's ear.
"Did you lock the door out into the hall?"
"Yes. I thought of that."
"Then we can beat them back to the room. If they catch us here it's good-bye, and it'll have to be the ledge again. Do you feel up to it?" '
"Yes."
She was half-way through the window, going steadily, when she turned round again. "Ken, I forgot. The door of your room is locked. But mine isn't. If they don't get any answer from your room, they'll go to mine. And there's a communicating door between."
CHAPTER TWELVE
The Quiet Hotel
We beat them by a short head; but we beat them. When the clerk threw open the communicating door, we were standing in my room by the mantelpiece, and I was lighting cigarettes for Evelyn and myself. The trouble was that it is devilish difficult to assume an air of outraged dignity when you're grimy, dishevelled, and when the lady had no shoes on. There had not even been time for that.
That fellow had charged at the door, evidently convinced that we had done a bunk. I had heard him hammering vainly at my door while we shuffled along the ledge. Now he entered by the open way, and stopped dead.