Scene--The dining room in the country house of James K. Gardner
on Long Island. In the back wall is a double doorway opening into
a hall. A curtain divided in the middle hangs across the entrance.
On the wall on either side of the doorway are two electric lights,
and to the left is a telephone. Further to the left is a
sideboard. On it are set silver salvers, candlesticks, and
Christmas presents of silver. They still are in the red flannel
bags in which they arrived. In the left wall is a recessed window
hung with curtains. Against the right wall is a buffet on which is
set a tea-caddy, toast-rack, and tea kettle. Below the buffet a
door opens into the butler's pantry. A dinner table stands well
down the stage with a chair at each end and on either side. Two
chairs are set against the back wall to the right of the door. The
walls and windows are decorated with holly and mistletoe and
Christmas wreaths tied with bows of scarlet ribbon. When the
window is opened there is a view of falling snow. At first the
room is in complete darkness.

The time is the day after Christmas, near midnight.

After the curtain rises, one hears the noise of a file scraping
on iron. It comes apparently from outside the house at a point
distant from the dining room. The filing is repeated cautiously,
with a wait between each stroke, as though the person using the
file had paused to listen.

Alice Gardner enters at centre, carrying a lighted candle in a