ted. A rough but permanent wooden ladder led
from the higher level to the lower. Duvall judged that it had been
placed there to provide easy communication between the upper roof and
the lower. Leaving the ladder where it stood, he made his way down to
the roof of the back building. It was covered with tin, and he walked
softly in his stockinged feet to avoid being overheard.

His first act was to go to the wall of the apartment house which faced
him, and make a thorough examination of it by the light of his electric
torch. He judged that in the position in which he now stood he was about
on a level with the floor of Ruth's room. The brick wall of the
apartment building facing him was blank, that is, it contained no
windows. After a minute examination, Duvall was forced to the conclusion
that no entrance to the girl's bedroom had been made through it. The
bricks were solid, immovable, the cemented joints firm and unbroken. A
moment later he turned to the left.

Here the rising wall of the attic story of the house faced him, reaching
to a point above his head. Two dusty and long unopened dormer windows,
similar to those facing on the court, confronted him. He remembered that
the servant of the house next door had informed him, earlier in the
week, that the attic was, and long had been, unoccupied.

Whether the attic was tenanted or not, however, had no bearing on the
problem which confronted him. The windows might serve as a means whereby
anyone could reach the roof of the back building from the house proper,
but they did not suggest any means whereby anyone might reach the
windows of Ruth's bedroom. And by ascending to the point on the attic
roof where his ladder stood, the problem was no nearer a solution, for a
person standing there was on the edge of the court between the
buildings, seven feet or more above the girl's bedroom window, and as
many away from it. He turned away, and approaching the rear edge of the
back building, looked over.

To his left, some eight feet away, was the fire escape before the rear
window of the girl's bedroom. Standing on that sharp edge, he realized
that in no way could he reach the railing of the fire escape, except by
jumping, a feat that an expert gymnast might have hesitated to attempt,
at that height above the ground. And could it be done successfully, what
about the crash, the noise which must inevitably result from such a
performance? What about the damage to the paint upon the