Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/109

 Then she entered the hatchway between the line-stanchions and stepped quietly but quickly down the narrow stairs. She listened, when she came to the first floor below, but could hear nothing beyond the distant sound of a piano. So she crept on, peering over the banister from time to time, and breathing easier at every foot of territory safely covered.

She had reached the second floor and was almost at the last stair-head when an interruption came. It came suddenly, with the unexpected opening of a door close beside her. Through this door stepped a tall and angular man in a voluminous bathrobe. In his hand he carried a towel and sponge, and the high-arched dome of his freshly scrubbed bald head shone like polished metal in the strong side-light.

Sadie, quick as thought, stopped and veered about so that she faced the door nearest her on the opposite side of the hall. She seemed to be staring at this door with troubled anxiety.

"Pawdon me," she drawled over her shoulder to the advancing figure, "but is this Miss Derfflinger's room?"

"Derfflinger?" repeated the man in the bathrobe, eying her suspiciously. "There's no Miss Derfflinger in this house."