Just then Florence returned and announced that she had sent Felipe to sweep the kitchen.
Thus assured that Felipe was out of the way, the girls slipped quickly to the balcony.
Unfastening the string from the hinge where they had left it, the rope dropped within reach. With the flashlight fastened to the back of her belt, Jo Ann climbed, hand over hand, up to the roof.
As soon as she had helped Peggy over the ledge and slipped the rope off the iron bar, the two girls hurried on across the roof. They did not want to stay in the sun longer than necessary or climb back to the balcony before a crowd of spectators.
“Isn’t this view gorgeous!” exclaimed Peggy, running first to one side of the building and then to the other, to gaze down on the city lying quietly below.
“Yes,” nodded Jo Ann, busily making the necessary preparations for her hazardous adventure. “Bring me the parasol a minute, will you?”
“All right, but what in the world are you going to do with a parasol?”
“Wait a minute and you’ll see. I’ve got to fasten this rope to the wall by poking it through this little hole—left here for a drain I suppose. You’ll notice the roof slopes down this way a little.”
“Yes, I see, but how’ll that fasten it?”
“Well, I’ll tie this stick”—Jo Ann held up a piece of wood—“to the end of the rope, then push it through the hole.” Suiting her words to action, she began poking it with the parasol. “Climb up on the wall and tell me when it comes through, will you?”