y that. Not more than a year probably. A gang like this wouldn't
hold together on a proposition for many months."

The black brows over those clear, childlike eyes, puckered a bit. I saw
she wasn't at all satisfied with what I had said.

"Made all the observations you want to, Bobs?" Worth asked.

"All here. I want to see the roof." She gave us rather a mechanical
smile as she silently ticked her points off on her fingers, appealing
to me with, "I'm depending upon you for such facts as I have been unable
to observe for myself, so if you give me wrong facts--make
mistakes--I'll make mistakes in deduction."

There was such confidence in her deductive abilities that a tinge of
irony crept into my tones as I replied,

"I'll be very careful what opinions I hold."

"I don't mind the opinions," this astounding young woman took me up
gaily. "I never have any of my own, so I don't pay attention to anybody
else's. But _do_ be careful of your facts!"

"I'll try to," was all I said. Worth cut in with,

"Do you consider the roof another fact, Bobs?"

"I hope to find facts there," she answered promptly.

"Remember," I said, "your theory means another man up there, and you
haven't yet--"

"Please, Mr. Boyne, don't take two and two and make five of them at this
stage of the game," she checked me hastily, and I left them together
while I made a hurried survey of the hall ceilings, looking for the
scuttle. There was no hatchway in view, so I started down to the clerk
to make inquiry. As I passed Clayte's open door, Miss Wallace seemed to
be adjusting her turban before the dresser mirror, while Worth waited
impatiently.

"Just a minute," I called. "I'll be right back," and I ducked into the
elevator.

CHAPTER VI

ON THE ROOF

When I returned with a key and the information that the way to the roof
ran through the janitor's tool-room at the far end of the hall, I found
my young people already out there. Worth was trying the tool-room door.

"Got the key?" he called. "It's locked."

"Yes." I took my time fitting and turning it. "How did you know this was
the room?"

"I didn't," briefly. "Bobs walked out here, and I followed her. She said
we'd want into this one."

She'd guessed right again! I wheeled on her, ejaculating,

"For the love of Mike! Tell a mere man how you deduced this stairway.
Feminine intuition, I suppose."

I hadn't meant to be offensive with that last, but her firm little chin
was in the a