The dark-brown facades were expressionless as the faces of mummies.
Smooth boards had been neatly fitted into the window frames and made
to cover front doors. There seemed at first glance to be no way in,
but as Winifred slowly ascended the steps of the fourth house from the
corner, she made out the lines of a little door cut in the boards
which protected the big one. There was no handle to break the smooth,
unpainted surface of wood--old, well-seasoned wood which had evidently
served the same purpose year after year--but there was a small,
inconspicuous keyhole, and into this Miss Leavitt deftly fixed a key
which she took from her hand bag.
"My friend sent me this," she explained, "to save us waiting, 'cause
there's only one servant, and he might be busy. Say, this is real fun,
ain't it?"
"It's--it's quite like a sort of adventure," Win answered "I had no
idea the house would be shut up, or---"
"It'll make it all the cooler," said Lily. She had got the little door
open, and the space between it and the house door it protected could
be seen in the street lights, like a miniature vestibule. "Squeeze in
and feel around till you find the electric bell," she went on.
Pages:
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314