it an inch or two before it should shut, when, as my
experience had taught me, it might stick by the subsidence of the walls.
But it did stick ajar, and remained firmly fixed in that position. From
the clattering of the knob of the other door, and the sound of hurried
voices behind it, I knew that the same thing had happened there when
that door had fully closed.

I was familiar enough with earthquakes to know that, with the second
shock or subsidence of the earth, the immediate danger was passed, and
so I was able to note more clearly what else was passing. There was the
usual sudden stampede of hurrying feet, the solitary oath and scream,
the half-hysterical laughter, and silence. Then the tumult was
reawakened to the sound of high voices, talking all together, or the
impatient calling of absentees in halls and corridors. Then I heard
the quick swish of female skirts on the staircase, and one of the fair
guests knocked impatiently at the door of the end room, still immovably
fixed. At the first knock there was a sudden cessation of the hurried
whisperings and turning of the doorknob.

"Mrs. Saltillo, are you there? Are you frightened?" she called.

"Mrs. Saltillo"! It was SHE, then, who was in the room! I drew nearer
my door, which was still fixed ajar. Presently a voice,--Mrs. Saltillo's
voice,--with a constrained laugh in it, came from behind the door: "Not
a bit. I'll come down in a minute."

"Do," persisted the would-be intruder. "It's all over now, but we're all
going out into the garden; it's safer."

"All right," answered Mrs. Saltillo. "Don't wait, dear. I'll follow. Run
away, now."

The visitor, who was evidently still nervous, was glad to hurry away,
and I heard her retreating step on the staircase. The rattling of the
door began again, and at last it seemed to yield to a stronger pull,
and opened sufficiently to allow Mrs. Saltillo to squeeze through. I
withdrew behind my door. I fancied that it creaked as she passed, as if,
noticing it ajar, she had laid an inquiring hand upon it. I waited, but
she was not followed by any one. I wondered if I had been mistaken. I
was going to the bell-rope to summon assistance to move my own door when
a sudden instinct withheld me. If there was any one still in that room,
he might come from it just as the servant answered my call, and a public
discovery would be unavoidable. I was right. In another instant the
figure of a man, whose face I could not discern, slipped