Yet how could he get away unobserved? There was no exit from the
staircase by the door into the tap-room where Nur-el-Din was, and
to go through the tap-room was to risk coming face to face with
Strangwise.
So Desmond remained where he was by the window and watched.
Presently, the woman turned and began to cross the yard,
Strangwise, carrying his gun, following her. Desmond waited until
he heard a door open somewhere below and then he acted.
Beside the window ran an old lead water-pipe which drained the
roof above his head. On a level with the sill of the landing
below, this pipe took a sharp turn to the left and ran diagonally
down to a tall covered-in water-butt that stood on the fiat roof
of an outhouse in the little yard.
Desmond raised the window very gently and tested the pipe with
his hand. It seemed rather insecure and shook under his pressure.
With his eye he measured the distance from the sill to the pipe;
it was about four feet. Desmond reckoned that, if the pipe would
hold, by getting out of the window and hanging on to the sill, he
might, by a pendulum-like motion, gain sufficient impulse to
swing his legs across the diagonally-running pipe, then transfer
his hands and so slide down to the outhouse roof.
He wasted no time in debating the chances of the pipe collapsing
under his weight.
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