"Forward, men," cried the inspector. "We must catch them, dead or alive."
In a moment, Simon had bounded up the stairs and now stood near the official at the skylight.
"How slanting that roof is!" growled the inspector. "One misstep and you lie in the street."
He carefully climbed out; Simon followed, and then they both looked around for the escaped conspirators.
"There they are!" exclaimed the steward, hastily. "Look, they have reached the edge of the roof and are going to swing themselves over to the neighboring roof! They are fools; the distance must be at least ten feet. They will either fall down and smash their heads on the pavement, or else fall into our hands."
Simon had seen aright. Girdel and Fanfaro were at the edge of the roof, and now the young man bent down and swung something his pursuers could not make out.
"Surrender!" cried the inspector, holding himself on a chimney.
Fanfaro now rose upright. He made a jump and the next minute he was on the neighboring roof.
The inspector and Simon uttered a cry of rage, and redoubled it when they saw Fanfaro busying himself tying a stout rope to an iron hook which he connected with another hook on the roof he had just left.