Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/321

 but it was even securely barred. So she directed her attention to the other side of the room where the door stood.

The door itself was not encouraging. But above it stood a transom, the glass of which had at some time been replaced by a heavy walnut panel. This transom, she felt, was the one assailable point in the enemy's line. So she decided to storm it.

To storm it, however, was not an altogether easy matter. But Sadie's wits had in the past risen to emergencies even greater than this. She stood for a moment deep in thought. Then she quietly dragged the tapestry-covered box-couch toward the door. This couch she turned over and stood up on end, making sure it was firmly fixed against the floor-boards. In this position, she had already decided, the exposed rows of coil-springs would provide her with a sort of scaling-ladder, unstable perhaps, but still possible.

This proved to be the case. She found the transom held shut by three nails driven into the door lintel; and it took but a few minutes' work with a piece of the palm-vase to work these nails free of the wood. The transom, once these were removed, swung back without trouble and showed the outer