Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/320

 When she had rested sufficiently, it was a matter of much less difficulty to lean forward and conquer first the trunk-strap and then the knots of the rope about her ankles. This too brought its own relief, though it was several moments, she found, before she could regain the use of her limbs. At first she thought they were paralyzed, so unresponding they were to the commands of will. They seemed, indeed, like something not belonging to her own body. And the pain became as sharp as the pain that follows frost-bite, merging from a multitudinous needling of nerve-ends into a dull ache of discomfort. But she persevered in her exercises, determinedly working the fingers of one hand and then the other. She next gave her attention to her feet. When these became normal she crept to the couch and lay on it, full length. She knew that she was once more free to move. And for that primal freedom she was not ungrateful.

But she did not remain idle for long. After a brief breathing-spell she was on her feet again, busily exploring the room. The window, she had imagined, would be the vulnerable point of her prison. But an examination of this window soon showed her to be wrong. It was not only shuttered