Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/332

 It disturbed her, as she did so, to find that the sound of conferring voices was no longer reaching her. But her first aim, once she was locked in that room, was to find the light-switch. So she groped and padded about as a blind woman might, following the line of the walls and exploring every piece of furniture with which she came in contact. It was several minutes before she came to an open roll-top desk on which stood a reading-lamp. In another moment or two she had discovered the switch and turned on the light.

She found herself in a sparsely-furnished room which had apparently been fitted up as an office. A telephone-directory on the desk-top in front of her sent her circling about the chamber for a telephone, but none was to be found in the room. She could not even unearth a trace of wiring. So she returned to the desk. There, beside the telephone-book, stood a box of cigarettes and a match-holder. For one brief moment she looked hesitatingly at the cigarettes, then began a hurried yet methodic search of the desk-drawers.

But these she found practically empty. It was not until she came to the bottom drawer on the right-hand side that her search was in any way