one's fancy to an uninhabited house. From a
distant kennel a dog began to bay. Otherwise I was not answered, and as
I rang and thundered on the knocker again, the animal's voice at length
subsided into a protesting whine.

I ought by this time to have been sure that Wildred and Karine were not
in the house, but, on the contrary, I was by no means certain of that
fact. Mentally I argued that, if the master was absent, a caretaker or
servant would certainly have been left, and unless a stone-deaf person
had been selected for the post my violent alarms would have brought him
to me.

If any reason existed, however, why the door should not be opened, it
would be easy to understand how and why the caretaker might be suddenly
afflicted with an inability to hear.

Instead of being plunged into discouragement, an ever-kindling fire of
rage mounted within me. Rather than go away ignorant as to whether
Karine was hidden in this hateful house or not, I would force an
entrance. I sprang down the steps and went to one of the bow windows
nearest the door.

Not an instant's hesitation had I in kicking in one of the panes of
glass, but, as it happened, I had only my trouble for my pains. There
were solidly-barred shutters inside, so heavy that even I, strong man as
I was, could not break them open.

Furious now, I ran up to the door again, and drove my gloved fist
through the glass in one of the curious, six-inch-wide window panes that
ran the length of the door on either side. The shivered glass jingled
sharply on the polished wood of the floor inside, and I thrust in my arm
up to the elbow, hoping to get at the lock on the door within. As I did
so footsteps came running in the distance.

"Here! Here! What's the matter with you?" cried an imperative voice.

I had heard it before, I remembered. It was that of the eminently
respectable-looking servant who had so cleverly defended his master's
reputation on the occasion of my former visit to the House by the Lock.

"If you're a burglar," remarked the voice, "you'd better go away while
you can. I have a revolver, and my hand is on the trigger now."

"I am no burglar," I returned. "This is not exactly the time of night to
expect such gentry, is it? But you've kept me waiting long enough. I
wish to see your master and mistress, whom I happen to know are here
this evening, and I don't mean to go away without doing it."

The man inside chuckled.

"Nice way of announcing yourself,