CATALEPSY!

A dread word to the ignorant.

Imperceptibly the crowd dwindled; the most discreet among them
quite content to leave the house; others, with their curiosity
inflamed anew, to poke about and peer into corners and curtained
recesses while the opportunity remained theirs and the man of whom
they stood in fear sat lapsed in helpless unconsciousness. A few,
and these the most thoughtful, devoted all their energies to a
serious quest for the woman and child whom they continued to
believe to be in hiding somewhere inside the walls she had so
audaciously entered.

Among these was Miss Weeks whose importance none felt more than
herself, and it was at her insistence and under her advice (for
she only, of all who remained, had ever had a previous
acquaintance with the house) that the small party decided to start
their search by a hasty inspection of the front hall. As this
could not be reached from the room where its owner's motionless
figure sat at its grim watch, they were sidling hastily out, with
eyes still turned back in awful fascination upon those other eyes
which seemed to follow all their movements and yet gave no token
of life, when a shout and scramble in the passages beyond cut
short their intent and held them panting and eager, each to his
place.

"They've seen her! They've found her!" ran in quick, whispered
suggestion from lip to lip, and some were for rushing to see.