and out, opened it, closed it behind her, and locked it.

For a moment, her eyes unaccustomed to the darkness, she could see
nothing; and then a car, taking the form of a grotesque, looming shadow,
showed in front of her. She moved toward it, felt her way into
the tonneau, lifted up the back seat, and, groping around, found a
flashlight. She meant to hurry now. She did not mean to let that nervous
dread, that fear, that was quickening her pulse now, have time to get
the better of her. She located the door that led to the house, and in
another moment, the short passage behind her, she was in the kitchen,
the flashlight winking cautiously around her. She paused to listen here.
There was not a sound.

She went on again--through a swinging pantry door with extreme care, and
into a small hall. "On the right," the Sparrow had said. Yes, here
it was; a door that opened on the rear of the library, evidently. She
listened again. There was no sound--save the silence, that seemed to
grow loud now, and palpitate, and make great noises. And now, in spite
of herself, her breath was coming in quick, hard little catches, and the
flashlight's ray, that she sent around her, wavered and was not steady.
She bit her lips, as she switched off the light. Why should she be
afraid of this, when in another five minutes she meant to invite
attention!

She pushed the door in front of her open, found it hung with a heavy
portiere inside, brushed the portiere aside, stepped through into the
room, stood still and motionless to listen once more, and then the
flashlight circled inquisitively about her.

It was the library. Her eyes widened a little. At her left, over against
the wall, the mangled door of a safe stood wide open, and the floor for
a radius of yards around was littered with papers and documents. The
flashlight's ray lifted, and she followed it with her eyes as it made
the circuit of the walls. Opposite the safe, and quite near the doorway
in which she stood, was a window recess, portiered; diagonally across
from her was another door that led, presumably, into the main hall
of the house; the walls were tapestried, and hung here and there with
clusters of ancient trophies, great metal shields, and swords, and
curious arms, that gave a sort of barbaric splendor to the luxurious
furnishings of the apartment.

She worked quickly now. In a moment she was at the window portieres,
and, drawing these aside, she quietly raised the window, and