cause for mirth; but the grosser appetite prevailed, and I relinquished my
jest with regret, and sallied from the wood.

The appearance of the house affected me, as I drew near, with disquietude.
It seemed unchanged since last evening; and I had expected it, I scarce
knew why, to wear some external signs of habitation. But no: the windows
were all closely shuttered, the chimneys breathed no smoke, and the front
door itself was closely padlocked. Northmour, therefore, had entered by
the back; this was the natural, and indeed, the necessary conclusion; and
you may judge of my surprise when, on turning the house, I found the back
door similarly secured.

My mind at once reverted to the original theory of thieves; and I blamed
myself sharply for my last night's inaction. I examined all the windows on
the lower story, but none of them had been tampered with; I tried the
padlocks, but they were both secure. It thus became a problem how the
thieves, if thieves they were, had managed to enter the house. They must
have got, I reasoned, upon the roof of the outhouse where Northmour used
to keep his photographic battery; and from thence, either by the window of
the study or that of my old bedroom, completed their burglarious entry.

I followed what I supposed was their example; and, getting on the roof,
tried the shutters of each room. Both were secure; but I was not to be
beaten; and, with a little force, one of them flew open, grazing, as it
did so, the back of my hand. I remember, I put the wound to my mouth, and
stood for perhaps half a minute licking it like a dog, and mechanically
gazing behind me over the waste links and the sea; and, in that space of
time, my eye made note of a large schooner yacht some miles to the
northeast. Then I threw up the window and climbed in.