opulence; the belief, whether well or ill founded, that he accumulated, in
desks and drawers, the money continually flowing into his hands; and
lastly, the danger so ostentatiously courted by that habit of leaving the
house-door ajar through one entire hour--and that hour loaded with extra
danger, by the well-advertised assurance that no collision need be feared
with chance convivial visiters, since all such people were banished at
eleven. A regulation, which had hitherto operated beneficially for the
character and comfort of the house, now, on the contrary, under altered
circumstances, became a positive proclamation of exposure and
defencelessness, through one entire period of an hour. Williamson himself,
it was said generally, being a large unwieldy man, past seventy, and
signally inactive, ought, in prudence, to make the locking of his door
coincident with the dismissal of his evening party.

Upon these and other grounds of alarm (particularly this, that Mrs.
Williamson was reported to possess a considerable quantity of plate), the
journeyman was musing painfully, and the time might be within twenty-eight
or twenty-five minutes of twelve, when all at once, with a crash,
proclaiming some hand of hideous violence, the house-door was suddenly
shut and locked. Here, then, beyond all doubt, was the diabolic man,
clothed in mystery, from No. 29 Ratcliffe Highway. Yes, that dreadful
being, who for twelve days had employed all thoughts and all tongues, was
now, too certainly, in this defenceless house, and would, in a few
minutes, be face to face with every one of its inmates. A question still
lingered in the public mind--whether at Marr's there might not have been
_two_ men at work. If so, there would be two at present; and one of
the two would be immediately disposable for the up-stairs work; since no
danger could obviously be more immediately fatal to such an attack than
any alarm given from an upper window to the passengers in the street.
Through one half-minute the poor panic-stricken man sat up motionless in