the street-lamps
in the square below. I closed the door behind me, and found that I
had light enough to make my way about without difficulty. The room was
furnished in hotel fashion, and at one wall of it stood a ghostly piano,
its form revealed by mere hints of polish on its surface here and there.
On the opposite side was an escritoire with writing implements, and a
few scattered sheets of paper. In the centre of the room was a table,
and two or three disordered chairs were scattered about the apartment.
Faint as the light was, a cursory glance about the place made it evident
to me that so large an amount of money as the sum I meant to steal was
hardly likely to be there. There were two doors opening out of the room
apart from the one by which I had entered, and I was compelled to trust
to chance in my choice of the one to be next opened. I cannot in the
least tell why, but I walked without hesitation to the one on my left.
I tried the handle, and the door resisted me. I tried again more
strenuously, and I heard a voice from the other side cry out in sleepy
tones, asking who was there. I knew the voice for Lady Rollinson's.

I know very well that I am telling a queer story, but I must tell it
plainly. I set my sound knee against that door and threw my whole weight
with it, and in a second, with a horrible wrench at the injured wrist
and ankle, I stood inside the room. A faint scream greeted me, and I saw
a white figure in the act of scrambling upright in the bed.

"You will do well to be quiet," I said, and the figure sank back with
a sort of moan and gurgle of astonishment. My own nerves were so
overstrung already that I discerned a comedy in a situation sufficiently
serious, and if I had given way to the impulse which assailed me I
should have broken into a shout of unreasoning laughter. This was only
a surface current, however, and I was as conscious of the serious import
of my business as I am now in recalling the incidents of that incredible
adventure.

"Your ladyship," I said, with that odd sense of comedy still uppermost,
"will regard this as rather a curious intrusion. You have forty thousand
pounds belonging to Miss Rossano, and I am here to rob you of it. I
propose to do it with all delicacy; but if your ladyship will be good
enough to understand me, I mean to have the money."

That she heard me I am sure, but the sole answer I received came in the
shape of a muffled scream from underneath the bedclothes.