Well, that was reasonable--simple enough, too; but,
She stepped to the open door and placed the tip of a gloved finger on the nickeled naught that marked the panels.
"The significant zero again, Mr. Boyne," she laughed. "Here it means the room is not a tenanted one, and is therefore the way to the roof. Shall we go there?"
"Well, young lady," I said as I led her along the trail Worth had cleared, "it must be almost as bad to see everything that way--in minute detail--as to be blind."
"Carry on!" Worth called from the top of the ladder, reaching down to aid the girl. She laughed back at me as she started the short climb.
"Not at all bad! You others seem to me only half awake to what is about you--only half living," and she placed her hand in the strong one held down to her. As Worth passed her through the scuttle to the roof, I saw her glance carelessly at the hooks and staples, the clumsy but adequate arrangement for locking the hatch, and, following her, gave them more careful attention, wondering what she had seen--plenty that I did not, no doubt. They had no tale to tell my eyes.
Once outside, she stopped a minute with Worth to adjust herself to the sharp wind which swept across from the north. Here was a rectangular space surrounded by walls which ran around its four sides to form the coping, unbroken in any spot; a gravel-and-tar roof, almost flat, with the scuttle and a few small, dust covered skylights its only openings, four chimney-tops its sole projections. It was bare of any hiding-place, almost as clear as a tennis court.
We made a solemn tour of inspection; I wasn't greatly interested--how could I be, knowing that between this roof and my fugitive there had been locked windows, and a locked door under reliable human eyes? Still, the lifelong training of the detective kept me estimating the possibilities of a getaway from the roof--if Clayte could have reached it. Worth crossed to where the St. Dunstan fire escape came up from the ground to end below us at a top floor window. I joined him, explaining as we looked down,
"Couldn't have made it that way; not by daylight. In open view all around."
"Think he stayed up here till dark?" Worth suggested, quite as though the possibility of Clayte's coming here at all was settled.