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Page 18
For the second time that night I opened the casement and inhaled the
fetid odours arising from the narrow court. All the windows looking,
like mine, upon the air-shaft were shrouded in darkness; only a light
still burned in the window beneath the grating with the iron stair to
the little yard. What was at the foot of the stair I could not descry,
but I thought I could recognize the outline of a door.
From the window of the _cabinet de toilette_ to the yard the sides of
the house, cased in stained and dirty stucco, fell sheer away. Measured
with the eye the drop from window to the pavement was about fifty feet.
With a rope and something to break one's fall, it might, I fancied, be
managed....
From that on, things moved swiftly. First with my penknife I ripped the
tailor's tab with my name from the inside pocket of my coat and burnt it
in the candle; nothing else I had on was marked, for I had had to buy a
lot of new garments when I came out of hospital. I took Semlin's
overcoat, hat and bag into the _cabinet de toilette_ and stood them in
readiness by the window. As a precaution against surprise I pushed the
massive mahogany bedstead right across the doorway and thus barricaded
the entrance to the room.
From either side of the fireplace hung two bell-ropes, twisted silk
cords of faded crimson with dusty tassels. Mounting on the mantelpiece I
cut the bell-ropes off short where they joined the wire. Testing them I
found them apparently solid--at any rate they must serve. I knotted them
together.
Back to the _cabinet de toilette_ I went to find a suitable object to
which to fasten my rope. There was nothing in the little room save the
washstand, and that was fragile and quite unsuited for the purpose. I
noticed that the window was fitted with shutters on the outside
fastened back against the wall. They had not been touched for years, I
should say, for the iron peg holding them back was heavy with rust and
the shutters were covered with dust. I closed the left-hand shutter and
found that it fastened solidly to the window-frame by means of massive
iron bolts, top and bottom.
Here was the required support for my rope. The poker thrust though the
wooden slips of the shutter held the rope quite solidly. I attached my
rope to the poker with an expert knot that I had picked up at a course
in tying knots during a preposterously dull week I had spent at the base
in France. Then I dragged from the bed the gigantic eiderdown pincushion
and the two massive pillows, stripping off the pillow-slips lest their
whiteness might attract attention whilst they were fulfilling the
unusual mission for which I destined them.
At the window of the _cabinet de toilette_ I listened a moment. All was
silent as the grave. Resolutely I pitched out the eiderdown into the
dark and dirty air shaft. It sailed gracefully earthwards and settled
with a gentle plop on the stones of the tiny yard. The pillows followed.
The heavier thud they would have made was deadened by the billowy mass
of the _�dredon_. Semlin's bag went next, and made no sound to speak of;
then his overcoat and hat followed suit.
I noticed, with a grateful heart, that the eiderdown and pillows
covered practically the whole of the flags of the yard.
I went back once more to the room and blew out the candle. Then, taking
a short hold on my silken rope, I clambered out over the window ledge
and started to let myself down, hand over hand, into the depths.
My two bell-ropes, knotted together, were about twenty feet long, so I
had to reckon on a clear drop of something over thirty feet. The poker
and shutter held splendidly firm, and I found little difficulty in
lowering myself, though I barked my knuckles most unpleasantly on the
rough stucco of the wall. As I reached the extremity of my rope I
glanced downward. The red splash of the eiderdown, just visible in the
light from the adjoining window, seemed to be a horrible distance below
me. My spirit failed me. My determination began to ebb. I could never
risk it.
The rope settled the question for me. It snapped without warning--how it
had supported my weight up to then I don't know--and I fell in a heap
(and, as it seemed to me at the time, with a most reverberating crash)
on to the soft divan I had prepared for my reception.
I came down hard, very hard, but old Madame's plump eiderdown and
pillows certainly helped to break my fall. I dropped square on top of
the eiderdown with one knee on a pillow and, though shaken and jarred, I
found I had broken no bones.
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