Shears looked up: some men were working in a cradle hooked on to the balcony of the fifth floor.
"Upon my word," he said, "we've had a lucky escape! The clumsy beggars! Another yard and we should have caught that bag on our heads. One would really think...."
He stopped, darted into the house, rushed up the staircase, rang the bell on the fifth landing, burst into the flat, to the great alarm of the footman who opened the door, and went out on the balcony. There was no one there.
"Where are the workmen who were here a moment ago?" he asked the footman.
"They have just gone."
"Which way?"
"Why, down the servants' staircase."
Shears leant over. He saw two men leaving the house, leading their bicycles. They mounted and rode away.
"Have they been working on this cradle long?"
"No, only since this morning. They were new men."