d with herself, unless she had heard
some sound and was coming to investigate.

In panic terror, Eleanor turned back into the little room and crouched
down behind the safe, making herself as small as possible, actually
holding her breath for fear it would betray her.

Nearer came that steady, unhurried tread, and nearer. The girl thought
her heart would burst with its burden of suspense. She was obliged to
gasp for breath, and the noise of it rang as loudly and hoarsely in her
hearing as the exhaust of a steam-engine. She pressed a handkerchief
against her trembling lips.

Directly to the counter came the footsteps, and paused. There was the
thump of something being placed upon the shelf. Then deliberately the
woman turned and marched back to her quarters.

In time the girl managed to regain enough control of her nerves to
enable her to rise and creep out through the office enclosure to the
hall. Mrs. Clover had resumed her chanting in the kitchen; but Eleanor
was in no mood to run further chances just then. She needed to get away,
to find time to compose herself thoroughly. Pausing only long enough to
see for herself what the woman had deposited on the counter (it was a
common oil lamp, newly filled and trimmed, with a box of matches beside
it: preparations, presumably, against the home-coming of the master with
a fresh consignment of booty) she flitted swiftly to and through the
door, closed it and ran down the steps to the honest, kindly earth.

Here she was safe. None suspected her adventure or her discovery. She
quieted from her excitement, and for a long time paced slowly to and
fro, pondering ways and means.

The fire ebbed from the heart of the western sky; twilight merged
imperceptibly into a night extraordinarily clear and luminous with the
gentle radiance of a wonderful pageant of stars. The calm held unbroken.
The barking of a dog on the mainland carried, thin but sharp, across the
waters. On the Sound, lights moved sedately east and west: red lights
and green and white lancing the waters with long quivering blades. At
times the girl heard voices of men talking at a great distance. Once a
passenger steamer crept out of the west, seeming to quicken its pace as
it drew abreast the island, then swept on and away like a floating
palace of fairy lamps. As it passed, the strains of its string orchestra
sounded softly clear through the night. Other steamers followed--half a
dozen in a widely spaced procession