and window to be sure of the fastenings.  Once past the corner, the house sheltered him from the wind.  He was conscious of that exhilaration snow storms so often bring, while at the same time the atmosphere of desolation that surrounds all shut up houses, even one’s own, took hold of him.  Unconsciously he stopped and felt in his pocket for his revolver, and at the same moment, faintly, in the interior of the house, he heard a clock strike.

The sound was not perhaps alarming in itself, yet it sounded ominously in Geoffrey’s ears.  He recognised, or thought he recognised, the bell.  It was that of an old French clock he had bought, and had never had put in order.  He had never been able to make it go, but once touching it inadvertently he had aroused in it a breath of life so that it had struck one,—­this same sweet piercing note.  Who, he wondered, was touching it now?

Geoffrey was one of those who act best and naturally without delay.  Now he hesitated not at all.  He had the keys of the house in his pocket, and he moved quickly toward a side door which he remembered swung silently on its hinges.  It was not so much that he believed that there was any one in the house—­perhaps to the most apprehensive a burglar comes as a surprise—­but he felt he had too good grounds for suspicion to fail to investigate.

He unlocked the door without a sound.  As he stepped within, doubt was put an end to by the patch of white light that, streaming out of the library door, fell across the passageway before him.  He stooped down and took off his boots, and then cautiously approached the open door and looked in, knowing that darkness and preparation were in his favour.

His caution was unnecessary, for his entrance had not been heard.  The Hillsborough theory of the femininity of the burglar instantly fell to the ground.  A man of medium size was standing before one of the bookcases with his elbow resting near the clock; he was holding a volume in his hands with the careful ease of a book fancier.  The man’s back was turned so that a sandy head and a strongly built figure were all Geoffrey could make out.  Had it not been for a glimpse of a mask on his face, he might have been a student at work.

So intent did he appear that Geoffrey could not resist the temptation to make his entrance dramatic.  Creeping almost to the other’s elbow, revolver in hand, he said gently: 

“Fond of reading?”

The man, naturally startled, made a surprisingly quick movement toward his own revolver, and had it knocked out of his hand with a benumbing blow.  Geoffrey secured the weapon, and seeing the man’s retreat, may be excused for supposing the struggle over.