Page:Gaston Leroux--The man with the black feather.djvu/170

148 Theophrastus drew him across the road, set him against the wall of the Market-Gardeners' Hotel, showed him the position he was to take: to set his legs apart, and lean, lowering his head and raising his crossed arms, against the wall.

"I place you here," he said, "because of the little ledge on the left, I remember that it is very convenient."

"And next?" said Adolphe, leaning against the wall in the required position.

"Next, since you are the base of my column, I mount on that base…"

Before M. Lecamus had the time so much as to imagine a movement even, Theophrastus had climbed up on to his shoulders, sprung on to the ledge, leapt from it with one bound to the balcony of the house next door, and vanished through an open window into the room which opened on to it. M. Lecamus in a dazed consternation was gazing into the air, and asked himself where his friend Theophrastus could have vanished, when the street rang with piercing cries. A despairing voice howled, "Help! thieves! murderers!"

"I might have expected it!" cried M. Lecamus; and he dashed into the house from which the screams issued, while the passers-by