hand over hand. She had about twelve feet
to descend before she reached the kitchen entrance of the elevator. She
squeezed through the narrow opening and found herself in a stone-flagged
kitchen. It was empty. A small fire glowed in the grate. Her own tray
with all the crockery unwashed was on the dresser, and there were the
remnants of a meal at one end of the plain table. She tiptoed across the
kitchen to the door. It was bolted top and bottom and locked.
Fortunately the key was in the lock, and in two minutes she was outside
in a small courtyard beneath the level of the ground.

One end of the courtyard led past another window, and that she could not
risk. To her right was a flight of stone steps, and that was obviously
the safer way. She found herself in a little park which fortunately for
her was plentifully sprinkled with clumps of rhododendrons, and she
crept from bush to bush, taking care to keep out of sight of the house.
She had the telegram and the money in her hand, and her first object was
to get this outside. It took her twenty minutes to reach the wall. It
was too high to scale and there was no sign of a ladder. The only way
out was the little brown door she had seen from her bedroom window, and
cautiously she made her way back, flitting from bush to bush until she
came to the place where a clear view of the door and the building to its
left could be obtained.

The low-roofed shed she had seen was much longer than she had expected
and evidently had recently been built. Its black face was punctured at
intervals with square windows, and a roughly painted door to the left of
the brown garden gate was the only entrance she could see. She looked
for a key but without hope of finding one. She must take her chance, she
thought, and a quick run brought her from the cover of the bushes to the
brown portal which stood between her and liberty.

With trembling hands she slid back the bolts and turned the handle. Her
heart leapt as it gave a little. Evidently it had not been used for
years and she found it was only held fast by the gravel which had
accumulated beneath it.

Eagerly she scraped the gravel aside with her foot and her hand was on
the knob when she heard a muffled voice behind her. She turned and then
with a gasp of horror fell back. Standing in the doorway of the shed was
a thing which was neither man nor beast. It was covered in a wrap which
had once been white but was now dappled with green. The fac