“Yes,” answered Belle, “I can do anything. Help me over the side.”
“It’s going to hurt,” he observed, as he twisted the rope around her foot and showed her how to slide down. “It’s going to take all the skin off your hands and feet and maybe cut to the bone.”
Belle made no reply to this cheerful prediction. She had already started down the rope.
As Billie watched her disappear in the dark, the man said abruptly:
“Did a number of girls and a white-haired woman in a red automobile come here this evening?”
Billie hesitated.
“I believe so,” she said.
“Do you know so?” asked the man insistently.
“Yes.”
“Did you see one of them leave a rosewood box at the clerk’s desk?”