dder, felt cautiously along the top of the wall and
found a place where I could put my feet; Simmonds followed me, and
then came Godfrey. His was the difficult part, to draw up the ladder
and lower it again. As for me, it was all I could do to keep from
falling. I felt absurdly as though I were standing on a tremulous
tight-rope, high in the air; but Godfrey managed it somehow and
started down.

And at that instant, there shrilled through the night the high,
piercing note of a police-whistle. It rose and fell, rose and fell,
rose and fell; and then came poignant silence. The sound stabbed
through me. Without hesitation or thought of peril, I let myself go
and plunged downward into the darkness.

CHAPTER XXIII

DEADLY PERIL

There must be a providence which protects fools and madmen, for I
landed in a heavy clump of shrubbery, and got to my feet with no
injury more serious than some scratches on hands and face, which at
the time I did not even feel. In a moment, I had found the path and
was speeding toward the house. Ahead of me flitted a dark shadow which
I knew to be Godfrey, and behind me came the pad-pad of heavy feet,
which could only belong to Simmonds. And then, from the direction of
the house, came the crash of broken glass.

I reached the lawn, crossed it, and traversed the short avenue which
ended at the library door. Three men were there, and Simmonds came
panting up an instant later. The detectives had their torches in their
hands, and I saw that they had broken one of the glass panels of the
doors, and that one of them had passed a hand through the opening and
was fumbling about inside. There was a sharp click, and the hand came
back.

"There you are," he said, threw the door open, and stood aside for
his superior officer to lead the way.

"What's wrong?" Simmonds asked.

"I don't know--but the girl showed a light at her window."

"You heard nothing?"

"Not a sound."

Simmonds hesitated. No doubt the same thought occurred to him as to
me; for the lawyer-Tartarin in me suggested that we scarcely had
warrant to break our way into a sleeping house in the middle of the night.

But no such doubts seemed to disturb Godfrey. Without a word, he
caught the torch from Simmonds's hand, and passed through the doorway.
Simmonds followed, I went next, and the two other men came last, their
torches also flaring. Three beams of light flashed about the library
and showed it to be empty. One of them--