three cartridges in the magazine and Archie thrust it into
his pocket thinking it not a bad idea to be prepared for invasion.

He was oppressed with a fleeting sense of his isolation as he drew back
a shade and pressed his face to the pane. The house stood at the edge of
the summer colony and a considerable distance from its nearest neighbor.
The landward horizon still brightened at intervals with a languid
mockery of lightning, dimmed by the fog that was dragging in from the
sea. The siren in the harbor had begun its mournful iterations, and he
caught the occasional flash of the revolving light that gleamed now and
then through breaks in the fog.

He switched off the lights in the lower rooms and established himself in
the guest chamber. The bed had been dismantled but he found blankets and
linen and addressed himself to the novel task of making a couch for
himself. If he had consulted his pleasure in advance he would have
shrunk from camping in a lonely seaside house for a night; but now that
the experience was forced upon him he was surprised to find that he was
not afraid. The revelation was an agreeable one. He, Archibald Bennett,
was a perfectly normal being, capable of rising to emergencies; and when
he saw Isabel Perry again, as he had every intention of doing at the end
of the summer, this little trip to Bailey Harbor would make a very
pretty story which could not fail to convince her of his fortitude and
courage.

Sleeping in his underwear was distasteful but this was only another
small item that proved his resolute fiber and ability to accept
conditions as he found them. He opened the windows and performed his
usual before-retiring calisthenics, tested the reading lamp beside the
bed, placed the pistol within easy reach and became absorbed in a volume
of short stories.

He read the book through, put out the light and was half asleep when he
was roused by footsteps on the veranda below.

IV

It was close upon midnight and the presence of a prowler on the premises
caused his heart to gallop wildly. He seized the pistol, crept to the
window and peered cautiously out. Between the crash of the breakers he
listened intently and had decided that the steps had been the illusion
of a dream when a sound in the room below renewed his alarm. He gained
the door in two jumps. He could hear the opening and closing of drawers
and see the flash of an electric lamp as the thief moved swiftly about,
apparently taking i