"Are you sure Annette's abed?" he asked anxiously.

Rosalie threw him a swift glance, as of suspicion.

"Sure," she said--"saw her go. Now before I let you out, I want to git
one promise from you. Whatever happens, you leave this house quiet,--as
quiet as you can. You've got _me_ to guard in this as well as
yourself--you can't leave me alone with trouble."

"I'll promise that," he said. "Won't you tell me what I'm going to
see?"

Rosalie, under pretense of consulting her watch, looked away.

"You'll know in ten minutes," she said. "Now don't bother me with any
questions. I've got directions for you. You're coming with me to the
floor below. I'll let you into a hall closet. It was built into a--into
a room, and the back of it is only wood. There's an old gas connection,
which they papered over, through that wood. Yesterday I punched through
the paper and hung a picture over the hole. This afternoon, I took that
picture down. To-morrow morning, the picture goes back. But now,
there's a peephole into the room."

Dr. Blake bristled.

"Peep through a hole!" he said.

"Now ain't that just like a fashionable bringin-up," said Rosalie,
almost raising her voice. "Things a gentleman can do an' things he
can't do! You're tryin' to bust a crook, an' you remember what your
French nurse told you about the etiquette of keyholes!"

"You're my master at argument, Mme. Le Grange," responded Blake. "Go
ahead."

"And you promise to leave quiet?"

"I promise."

"There's one place I can trust your bringin'-up, I guess. When you're
inside, feel about till you find a hassock. Stand on it; 't will bring
your eyes up to the hole. Stay there until I knock for you to come
out--let's be goin'."

"But what am I to do--why am I here if I am to do nothing?"

"You're to look an' see an' remember what you see--that's all for
to-night."

At the door, she looked him full in the eyes again:

"Remember, you've promised."

"I remember."

The dim light of a low gas jet illuminated the upper hall. From below
came the faintest murmur of voices. Rosalie led to the hall of the
second floor, turned toward the back of the house, opened a door and
motioned. He stepped inside; the door closed without noise. He was in
black darkness.

His foot found the hassock; he mounted it and adjusted his eye. He was
looking into some kind of a living-room or boudoir. On the extreme left
of his range of vision he could see a set of dark portieres; direct