V.

'EUREKA!'

AT twelve o'clock p.m. a party of men had gathered not far from the
house where Mrs. Camp had made her singular discoveries; they came
singly and by twos, from various directions, and their movements were
so quiet as not to have disturbed the lightest of sleepers, however
near, for with one exception all were trained to the business in hand.

When two of the party had made a careful reconnaissance of the
premises they returned to the waiting group.

'There's the door and two windows at the front,' said one, 'and three
windows on the alley, the middle one, as we know, boarded on the
inside. At the back is a door opening upon a sort of shed, and a
window in the same; and in the angle formed by the shed and the rear
of the house proper is another window; on the inner side, opposite the
alley, the wall is blank. There's no bed in the front room,' the
speaker went on rapidly, 'though someone may bunk there. Of course
there's a watcher in his room. Two of you must patrol the alley while
Brainerd cuts out a pane or two of that closed-up alley window, to see
if anything can be heard through the cracks of those inside boards,
though it's probable they are padded to deaden sound. As for the upper
rooms, they're sleeping there doubtless, and----'

'Don't forget,' interposed Brainerd in a low half-whisper, 'about
those iron hooks outside those back windows. They're for something
more than signalling; they're stout enough to support a rope with a
man at the end, and the rope and the man are both inside, no doubt.'

'Four to the back then,' I said, 'and you, Jeffrys, take the lead;
three to the alley, you and two others, Dave. If the thing's not
accessible, divide to back and front. Lossing, can you and Murphy hold
me on your shoulders while I try that window? Now, all to our places;
and there ought to be a train soon over there; let's do our cutting
under cover of its noise.'

The Illinois Central Railway was but a little distance from us, and we
took our places to await the sound of its first train. But fortune,
having baffled and hindered us again and again, seemed now to have
relented toward us.

Before trying the window I crept up the steps to examine the lock of
the door, and judge, if I could, of its security. Lossing, as he still
preferred to be called, and Murphy, the policeman, were standing below
me, one on either side of the steps, and as I stood at the door above
them I turned and looked about