to be endured, and pushing open the gate, he walked slowly up the
gravel path towards the house, round which he began to walk, going
very slowly and cautiously and often pausing as if he wished to
make as close examination of the place as the darkness would permit.

More by habit than because he thought there was any need of it, he
moved always with that extreme and wonderful dexterity of quietness
he could assume at will, and as he turned the corner of the building
and came behind it, his quick ear, trained by many an emergency to
pick out the least unusual sound, caught a faint, continued
scratching noise, so faint and low it might well have passed
unnoticed.

All at once he understood and realized that some one quite close at
hand was stealthily cutting out the glass from one of the panes of
a ground-floor window.



CHAPTER IV

A WOMAN WEEPS


Cautiously he glided nearer, moving as noiselessly as any shadow,
seeming indeed but one shadow the more in the heavy surrounding
darkness.

The persistent scratching noise continued, and Dunn was now so close
he could have put out his hand and touched the shoulder of the man