The balcony ran round the hotel, as a way of escape during a fire; it was broad, and since the night was starry, but fairly dark, they were little likely to be seen from below by the detectives watching the hotel doors.

They walked round to the back, came through a window into a bathroom, through the bathroom on to the servants' staircase, and went right down into the basement.
"I get up early in the morning before the servants, and I had to find a way out," said Tinker in an explanatory whisper.
He led the way through the kitchen into a long passage, set with the doors of cellars on either side.

At the end of the passage was a short ladder with rounded iron rungs, by which barrels were lowered, and Tinker, mounting three rungs, pushed back a bolt, raised the heavy trap a little, and peered about from under it.
"The street's clear," he said.

"Come on!" He slipped out on to the pavement, helped the clumsy financier through the trap, caught his hand, and ran him across the street into a narrow lane.
"There!" he said cheerfully.

"That's the most difficult part of the business! You're out of the hotel, and not a soul knows it!" The financier's spirits brightened.