A woman," he said. "Did it come from this house?"

We were standing before a three-story brick residence. All its windows
were dark. There was a front stoop of several steps, and a basement
entryway. The windows were all closed, and the place had the look of
being unoccupied.

"Not in there, Larry," I answered. "It's closed for the summer--" But
I got no further; we heard it again. And this time it sounded, not
like a scream, but like a woman's voice calling to attract our
attention.

"George! Look there!" Larry cried.

The glow from a street light illumined the basement entryway, and
behind one of the dark windows a girl's face was pressed against the
pane.

Larry stood gripping me, then drew me forward and down the steps of
the entryway. There was a girl in the front basement room. Darkness
was behind her, but we could see her white frightened face close to
the glass. She tapped on the pane, and in the silence we heard her
muffled voice:

"Let me out! Oh, let me get out!"

The basement door had a locked iron gate. I rattled it. "No way of
getting in," I said, then stopped short with surprise. "What the
devil--"

I joined Larry by the window. The girl was only a few inches from us.
She had a pale, frightened face; wide, terrified eyes. Even with that
first glimpse, I was transfixed by her beauty. And startled; there was
something weird about her. A low-necked, white satin dress disclosed
her snowy shoulders; her head was surmounted by a pile of snow-white
hair, with dangling white curls framing her pale ethereal beauty. She
called again.

"What's the matter with you?" Larry demanded. "Are you alone in there?
What is it?"

* * * * *

She backed from the window; we could see her only as a white blob in
the darkness of the basement room.

I called, "Can you hear us? What is it?"

Then she screamed again. A low scream; but there was infinite terror
in it. And again she was at the window.

"You will not hurt me? Let me--oh please let me come out!" Her fists
pounded the casement.

What I would have done I don't know. I recall wondering if the
policeman would be at our corner down the block; he very seldom was
there. I heard Larry saying:

"What the hell!--I'll get her out. George, get me that brick.... Now,
get back, girl--I'm going to smash the window."

But the girl kept her face pressed against the pane. I had never seen
such terrified eyes. Terrified at something be