w was he to make
good his escape in the bright glare of that early Spring day?

He walked to the door at the far end of the apartment and cautiously
opened it an inch. Before him and about two feet away was the blank
wall of another building. Bradley opened the door a little farther and
looked in both directions. There was no one in sight to the left over
a considerable expanse of roof-top, and to the right another building
shut off his line of vision at about twenty feet. Slipping out, he
turned to the right and in a few steps found a narrow passageway
between two buildings. Turning into this he passed about half its
length when he saw a Wieroo appear at the opposite end and halt. The
creature was not looking down the passageway; but at any moment it
might turn its eyes toward him, when he would be immediately discovered.

To Bradley's left was a triangular niche in the wall of one of the
houses and into this he dodged, thus concealing himself from the sight
of the Wieroo. Beside him was a door painted a vivid yellow and
constructed after the same fashion as the other Wieroo doors he had
seen, being made up of countless narrow strips of wood from four to six
inches in length laid on in patches of about the same width, the strips
in adjacent patches never running in the same direction. The result
bore some resemblance to a crazy patchwork quilt, which was heightened
when, as in one of the doors he had seen, contiguous patches were
painted different colors. The strips appeared to have been bound
together and to the underlying framework of the door with gut or fiber
and also glued, after which a thick coating of paint had been applied.
One edge of the door was formed of a straight, round pole about two
inches in diameter that protruded at top and bottom, the projections
setting in round holes in both lintel and sill forming the axis upon
which the door swung. An eccentric disk upon the inside face of the
door engaged a slot in the frame when it was desired to secure the door
against intruders.

As Bradley stood flattened against the wall waiting for the Wieroo to
move on, he heard the creature's wings brushing against the sides of
the buildings as it made its way down the narrow passage in his
direction. As the yellow door offered the only means of escape without
detection, the Englishman decided to risk whatever might lie beyond it,
and so, boldly pushing it in, he crossed the threshold and entered a
small