"Is there a gutter outside ?" I whispered, beginning to tingle all over as the thought of escape for the first time occurred to me.
"No," he answered in the same tone.

"But Marie says he can see a beam below, which he thinks we can reach." I sprang up, promptly displaced Marie, and looked out.

When my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom I discerned a dark chaos of roofs and gables stretching as far as I could see before me.

Nearer, immediately under the window, yawned a chasm--a narrow street.

Beyond this was a house rather lower than that in which we were, the top of its roof not quite reaching the level of my eyes.
"I see no beam," I said.
"Look below!" quoth Marie, stolidly, I did so, and then saw that fifteen or sixteen feet below our window there was a narrow beam which ran from our house to the opposite one--for the support of both, as is common in towns.