She was uncertain whether one was supposed to pull this wire, and in the hesitation she took hold of the door latch.  To her surprise the door yielded, and following the impulse of her extended hand, she went in.

The hall was empty.  There was no servant to be seen.  And immediately the domestic arrangement of the biologist were clear to her.  They would be that of one who had a cleaning woman in on certain days, and so lived alone.  She was not encouraged by this economy, and yet such a custom in a man like Bramwell Winton might be habit.

The scientist, in the popular conception, was not concerned with the luxury of life — they were a rum lot.

But the house was not empty.  A smart hat and stick were in the rack and from what should be a drawing room, above, there descended faintly the sound of voices.

It seemed ridiculous to Lady Muriel to go out and struggle with the broken bell wire.  She would go up, now that she had entered, and announce herself, since, in any event, it must come to that.

The heavy oak door closed without a sound, as it had opened.  Lady Muriel went up the stairway.  She had nothing to put down.  The only thing she carried was a purse, and lest it should appear suggestive — as of one coming with his empty wallet in his hand — she tucked the gold mesh into the bosom of her jacket.

The door to the drawing room was partly open, and as Lady Muriel approached the top of the stair she heard the voices of two men in an eager colloquy; a smart English accent from the world that she was so desperately endeavoring to remain in, and a voice that paused and was unhurried.  But they were both eager, as I have written, as though commonly impulsed by an unusual concern.

And now that she was near, Lady Muriel realized that the conversation was not low or under uttered.  The smart voice was, in fact, loud and incisive.  It was the heavy house that reduced the sounds.  In fact, the conversation was keyed up.  The two men were excited about something.

A sentence arrested the woman’s advancing feet.

“My word!  Bramwell, if some one should go there and bring the things out, he would make a fortune, and would be famous.  Nobody ever believed these stories.”

“There was Le Petit, Sir Godfrey,” replied the deliberate voice.  “He declared over his signature that he had seen them.”

“But who believed Le Petit,” continued the other.  “The world took him to be a French imaginist like Chateaubriand . . . who the devil, Bramwell, supposed there was any truth in this old story?  But by gad, sir, it’s true!  The water color shows it, and if you turn it over you will see that the map on the back of it gives the exact location of the spot.  It’s all exact work, even the fine lines of the map have the bearings indicated.  The man who made that water color, and the drawing on the back of it, had been on the spot.