and that one
cannot always find scissors in a strange room in the middle of the
night. In the end, we could only knot the two together, and tie one end
to the rail of the washstand. It was not long enough then, but I
scrambled out and let myself down to the end, and then dropped, and by
good providence managed to steady myself on the roof beneath. It was
not so very sloping as roofs go, and the gutter was deep, and made a
kind of little wall round the edge. I called to Vere to follow, and
promised to catch her, but it took, oh, ages of coaxing and scolding
before she would venture, and it was only by a miracle that we didn't
both fall to the ground, for she let go so suddenly and clutched at me
in such frantic terror when I stretched up to catch her. We didn't
fall, however, but cowered down together on the roof with our feet fixed
firmly against the projecting gutter, and I, for one, felt in a worse
position than ever. We were still too far from the ground to jump down
without hurting ourselves on the hard paving stones, and no one was in
sight, no one heard our calls for help. To make things worse, in
getting nearer the ground we had come nearer to the fire itself, for
some of the windows on the ground floor had fallen in, and it was just
like looking into the heart of a furnace. There is nothing more awful
than the speed with which fire travels. One feels so utterly helpless
before it. The tiles on which we sat were hot. I don't know if it was
fancy, but every now and then I seemed to feel a movement beneath us as
if something might give way. I think now that it really was
nervousness, for the roof was left practically unhurt, but at the time
anything seemed possible, and I was terrified. We called and called
again, but no one came, and it seemed as if hours passed by, and the
fire came creeping nearer and nearer. Sometimes Vere would be frantic
with excitement; sometimes she would cover her face with her hands and
moan; sometimes she would be on the brink of fainting. I began to see
that if something was not done at once she would faint, and then we
would probably both fall to the ground together and be killed outright.
Something had to be done, and I had to do it. I went creepy cold all
down my spine, for I knew what it was I had to do, and was in mortal
terror of facing it.

Somehow or other, if Vere were to be saved in time, I must get up from
my cramped seat, lower myself over the edge of the ro