shadow on the blind; he even had some misty
notion about enforcing it, if need be. But--he was now helpless. He
could do no good; he could not tell Polke or anybody else what Walford
had reported. And if he was to be left there all night--which seemed
likely--he had only got himself into a highly unpleasant situation.

He moved at last, feeling about in the darkness. His hands encountered
smooth, blank walls, on each side of the door. He dared not step forward
lest he should run against machinery or meet with some cavity in the
flooring. And reflecting that the small, insignificant gleam which it
would make could scarcely be noticed from outside, he struck a match,
and carefully holding it within the flap of his outstretched jacket,
looked around him. A first quick glance gave him a general idea of his
surroundings. Immediately in front of him was the furnace; a little to
its side was a lathe; on one side of the place a long table stood,
covered with a multitude of tools, chemical apparatus, and the like; on
the other was a blank wall. And in that blank wall, to which Neale
chiefly directed his attention during the few seconds for which the
match burned, was a door.

The match went out; he dropped it on the floor and moved forward in the
darkness to the door which he had just seen. That, of course, must open
into the inner room to the outer window of which Walford had drawn his
attention. He went on until his outstretched fingers touched the door.
Then he cautiously struck another match and looked the door up and down.
What he saw added to the mystery of the whole adventure. Neale had seen
doors of that sort before, more than once--but they were the doors of
very big safes or of strong rooms. Before the second match burned
through he knew that this particular door was of some metal--steel,
most likely--that it was set into a framework of similar metal, and that
the room to which it afforded entrance was probably sound-proof.

He struck a third match and a fourth. By their light he saw there was
but one small keyhole to the door, and he judged from that that it was
fitted with some patent mechanical lock. There was no way by which he
could open it, of course, and though he stood for a long time listening
with straining ears against it he could not detect the slightest sound
from whatever chamber or recess lay behind it. If there really was a man
in there, thought Neale, he must surely feel himself to be in a living
to