ed her to form a new plan. She would go to the
laboratory that night, if she could by any means escape the vigilance of
the woman on guard in the hall, and find out, if possible, whether or
not Richard was confined there. From the windows of her room, which
faced the rear of the house, she could see plainly the small square
brick building in which the laboratory was located. There were lights in
the floor on a level with her windows--that, she knew, was the room in
which she had seen Hartmann sitting at his desk, on the night of her
arrival. But there were, she knew, rooms both above and below this one,
and in the latter lay hidden the Ambassador's snuff box. Was Richard
confined there, as well? She determined to find out.

The woman who sat on watch in the hall came to her room at half-past ten
and looked in to see if she required anything. Grace, who was just
getting into bed, told her that she did not, said good-night sleepily,
and asked her to turn off the lights. The woman did so, and closing the
door softly, retired.

Grace lay in bed a long time, wondering how she could get down the hall,
and into the passageway leading to the laboratory, without being
observed. There seemed no possible way of accomplishing this, yet she
was determined to attempt it. Her thoughts were interrupted by the faint
ringing of an electric bell. She knew it was the one in the hall, near
where the nurse sat, by which any of the patients, desiring her presence
during the night, might summon her to their rooms. Grace slipped out of
bed, opened her door the slightest crack, so that she could command a
view of the hall, and peered out. She saw the nurse coming toward her
with a glass of water in her hand. She disappeared for a moment into a
room across the corridor, then reappeared almost at once and resumed her
seat at the head of the stairs.

Grace was disappointed. She had been on the point of starting out, when
the woman's reappearance prevented her. She crouched on the floor beside
her door, waiting until the nurse should again be summoned away.

She waited for hours. She heard the church bells in the city, far off
and muffled, booming the hour of midnight. The nurse on the chair yawned
and nodded. After what seemed an eternity, she heard one o'clock strike,
and then two. The house was shrouded in silence. Her knees were cramped
and cold, from contact with the floor; her whole body seemed sore, from
the nervous tension of her position