better wear sneakers.”

“Oh, sure!”

And so everything was set for the hour of ten.

“All clear!” Nancy whispered, tiptoeing down the hall. “Deck Three is deserted. Come on up.”

Armed with two pairs of small pliers, a coil of wire, a flashlight and the key to the attic, Sally followed in silence to the floor above. A swift glide, the rattle of a key, the silent opening and shutting of a door and Sally found herself tiptoeing up the attic stairs.

It was a dark and gloomy spot, that attic. As Nancy had put it: “A hundred years look at you up there.”

This was true, for an accumulation of furniture, long outmoded, was stored there. There, too, were all manner of stage drops and settings left over from amateur plays. With her flashlight aimed low, Sally picked her way with care to the nearest gable window.

The window was nailed down but her pliers soon took care of that.

As she stepped out on the roof, clinging to the gable, she took one good look at the world beneath and above her, then shuddered.

With dark clouds rolling through a black, windy sky it was one of those nights that always seemed to depress Sally.

Shaking herself free from her moodiness, she gave close attention to the problem that lay before her.

To discover the end of a wire they had thrust up along the heat pipe and to attach the end of her coil to it was simple enough. From there it was to be a trifle difficult. The roof was not too steep but shingles do not offer much chance for a hand grip. As Nancy had said, it was quite a distance to the ground from there and, though she would not have admitted it for worlds, Sally found herself a little dizzy.

One fact gave her a little comfort. Just beneath the part of the roof where she must do her climbing was an elm tree. Its top was broad and its strong, flexible branches all but brushed the building.

As she stood there hesitating, a group of freshman boys came marching by, singing.

She Stepped Out on the Roof and Clung to the Gable

Flattening herself against the gray roof she waited for them to pass. Then, having 

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