fire-escape.

Just outside of Mrs. Kingdon's window I lay still a minute. I had
seen her and Moriway go out together--she all gay with finery, he
carrying her bag. The lace curtains in 331 were blowing in the
breeze. Cautiously I parted them and looked in. Everything was
lovely. From where I lay I reached down and turned back the flap
of the carpet. It was too easy. Those darling diamonds seemed
just to leap up into my hand. In a moment I had them tucked away
in my pants pocket. Then down the fire-escape and out through
231, where I told the painter I'd been to get a toy the boy in
441 had dropped out of the window.

But he paid no attention to me. No one did, though I felt those
diamonds shining like an X-ray through my very body. I got
downstairs and was actually outside the door, almost in the
street and off to you, when a girl called me.

"Here, boy, carry this case," she said.

Do you know who it was? Oh, yes, you do, a dear old friend of
mine from Philadelphia, a young lady whose taste--well, all
right, I'll tell you: it was the girl with the red coat, and the
hat with the chinchilla fur.

How did they look? Oh, fairly well on a blonde! But to my taste
the last girl I'd seen in the coat and hat was handsomer.

Well, I carried her suit-case and followed her back into the
hotel. I didn't want to a bit, though that coat still--wonder how