rting myself with the edge of my boot
upon a crossbar about half way up; then, taking a small rope from my
pocket I threw one end of it over the gate, holding the other in my
teeth. Tying it securely by a noose I climbed hand over hand to the top
and then let myself down on the other side. I was quite exhausted by the
effort (unaccustomed as I was to such burglarious enterprises) and my
fingers were torn and bleeding from forcing a hold between the iron work
and the wire screen. I remembered the gravel pathway, overgrown with
grass, that led from the big gate to a front door. I groped about in the
darkness until I felt the gravel under my feet. Then I moved cautiously
along it, until I could dimly discern the outlines of the house. My
nerves were so wrought up, while I stood there holding my breath to
catch some sound from its gloomy interior, that I was near crying out
in abject terror at every step. An owl, startled from the limb of a tree
over my head, flew lazily into the upper air and across the thicket,
disturbing other birds that set up a chattering protest. Stealthily I
crept from window to window, but the blinds were closed fast. Finally I
came to a door that seemed to open into the main part of the building.
Desperate under the strain to which my nerves had been subjected, I
knocked loudly on its upper panels. The sound echoed through the
still house and the thickly wooded grounds around it. "God help me!" I
whispered; "will that echo never cease?" It kept repeating itself from
tree to tree, until I covered my ears to stop its weird reverberations.
Then I heard a low threatening sound, deep and resonant as the lower
tones of a great organ, that gradually grew louder until its volume
filled the air, and then died away, while its echoes went chasing each
other among the trees. In the silence which followed, my ear caught
another sound the like of which I had never heard before. A dozen clocks
being wound by quick turns on all sides of me would, I fancy, have
produced a similar effect. It was evident to me that my knocking had
disturbed my uncle's pets, but I was not to be frightened away. Hearing
no movement in the house I tried the door, and to my astonishment it
swung open. A peculiar odor, such as one notices in a house that has
long stood empty, came to my nostrils, and again I heard that fateful
whirring, but in the darkness I could discern no object. As I crossed
the threshold the sound grew louder, and to m