voice in easy conversation. On the ground floor all was not only

profoundly silent, but the darkness seemed to weigh upon my eyes.

Here, then, I stood for some time, having thrust myself uncalled

into the utmost peril, and being destitute of any power to help or

interfere. Nor will I deny that fear had begun already to assail

me, when I became aware, all at once and as though by some

immediate but silent incandescence, of a certain glimmering of

light upon the passage floor. Towards this I groped my way with

infinite precaution; and having come at length as far as the angle

of the corridor, beheld the door of the butler's pantry standing

just ajar and a narrow thread of brightness falling from the chink.

Creeping still closer, I put my eye to the aperture. The man sat

within upon a chair, listening, I could see, with the most rapt

attention. On a table before him he had laid a watch, a pair of

steel revolvers, and a bull's-eye lantern. For one second many

contradictory theories and projects whirled together in my head;

the next, I had slammed the door and turned the key upon the

malefactor. Surprised at my own decision, I stood and panted,

leaning on the wall. From within the pantry not a sound was to be

heard; the man, whatever he was, had accepted his fate without a

struggle, and now, as I hugged myself to fancy, sat frozen with

terror and looking for the worst to follow. I promised myself that

he should not be disappointed; and the better to complete my task,

I turned to ascend the stairs.

The situation, as I groped my way to the first floor, appealed to

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