“Hurry up, Barker,” he heard, in the voice of Casco, and then the steps came closer.
What was to be done? It would be fool-hardy to face the two men, both of whom he felt sure were armed. He must escape by some other means.
The window in the front end of the garret was still open, and toward this Bob rushed and looked out. The sidewalk was fully forty feet below, and there was no way to reach it save by a jump, and this would have meant instant death.
Bob looked up. Overhead, the roof of the building was but a few feet away. He sprang upon the window-sill, and without hesitation pulled himself out and upon the sloping roof beyond.
It was a dangerous situation, but Bob’s nerves were up to a high tension, and he did not falter.
The electric lights on the street beyond threw considerable light on the roof, and by this means the youth was enabled to crawl down to the gutter. Then he walked along to the rear, and finding here a projection one story lower, dropped upon it.
All had become quiet in the saloon and restaurant below, and Bob wondered what the police had done, and if they had really gone.
The youth looked around for some means of reaching the ground. There was the water spout, but that seemed too frail to bear his weight.
Leaning over the edge of the roof, he saw not far below a pulley-line used for drying clothes. The other end of the line was fastened to a house on the opposite side of the yard, and, by pulling upon the line, Bob found it moved through the pulley easily.
Taking his pocket-knife the youth quickly severed one of the lines and hauled in on the other. The consequence was that he soon found himself in possession of about a hundred feet of good strong wash-line.