Again he pulled on the door as hard as he could. But he could not open it.
“I’ll help,” offered Sue. But even with her aid Bunny could not pull it open. “I guess maybe it’s locked,” went on Sue.
“I guess maybe it is,” agreed Bunny.
Still they did not give up. Again and again Bunny and Sue pulled on the handle until it became very certain that the door was locked. It was not merely stuck from tightness—it was locked. Afterward the children found that there was a spring lock on the outside of the door and when it had blown shut it became securely fastened. It could only be opened from the outside.
It did not take Bunny and Sue very long to know that they were locked in—locked in that small room of the old, deserted factory. They had made a mistake coming up the stairs, for now they could not get out. There was no other door in the room.
But there was a window!
Bunny turned to this as soon as he had found out for a certainty that he could not open the door. Like many other windows in the factory, this one had most of its panes of glass broken out. Part of the sash was also gone, leaving an opening large enough for the boy and girl to step through without being cut on the jagged edges of the broken panes.
Bunny walked over to the window. Sue followed him and asked what he was going to do. For a moment her brother did not answer. Then he said:
“Look, here’s a fire escape! We can get out on that!”
Built on the outside brick wall of the factory was an iron balcony fire escape. One could easily step out of the window to the platform, which had a square hole in the center. The platform was made of strips of iron.