ams. But the
sharp noise that had succeeded it was nearer, was just outside the
room--the click of a turned knob, a footstep, a whisper, he could not
tell; a hard lump gathered in the pit of his stomach, and his whole
body ached in the moment that he strained agonisingly to hear. Then
one of the veils seemed to dissolve, and he saw a vague figure
standing by the door, a figure only faintly limned and blocked in upon
the darkness, mingled so with the folds of the drapery as to seem
distorted, like a reflection seen in a dirty pane of glass.

With a sudden movement of fright or resolution John pressed the button
by his bedside, and the next moment he was sitting in the green sunken
bath of the adjoining room, waked into alertness by the shock of the
cold water which half filled it.

He sprang out, and, his wet pyjamas scattering a heavy trickle of
water behind him, ran for the aquamarine door which he knew led out on
to the ivory landing of the second floor. The door opened noiselessly.
A single crimson lamp burning in a great dome above lit the
magnificent sweep of the carved stairways with a poignant beauty. For
a moment John hesitated, appalled by the silent splendour massed about
him, seeming to envelop in its gigantic folds and contours the
solitary drenched little figure shivering upon the ivory landing. Then
simultaneously two things happened. The door of his own sitting-room
swung open, precipitating three naked negroes into the hall--and, as
John swayed in wild terror toward the stairway, another door slid back
in the wall on the other side of the corridor, and John saw Braddock
Washington standing in the lighted lift, wearing a fur coat and a pair
of riding boots which reached to his knees and displayed, above, the
glow of his rose-colored pyjamas.

On the instant the three negroes--John had never seen any of them
before, and it flashed through his mind that they must be the
professional executioners paused in their movement toward John, and
turned expectantly to the man in the lift, who burst out with an
imperious command:

"Get in here! All three of you! Quick as hell!"

Then, within the instant, the three negroes darted into the cage, the
oblong of light was blotted out as the lift door slid shut, and John
was again alone in the hall. He slumped weakly down against an ivory
stair.

It was apparent that something portentous had occurred, something
which, for the moment at least, had postponed his own p