Page:Arthur Stringer - The Door of Dread.djvu/99

 Yet it was his expression more than his actual words that disturbed the retreating Sadie.

"Oh, I'll watch yuh," she said, as she felt behind her and opened the door into the hallway. Three more steps, she knew, would take her out of his sight, and twenty more would take her out of the house. So she withdrew with infinite precaution, never letting her eye waver from her enemy.

It was at the third step that she wondered why he suddenly ducked beneath the table-top. Her answer to that question came unexpectedly, in a sudden clutch about the body that swung her feet clear of the floor at the same time that it clamped her right arm closely against her side.

It was not until she saw the pair of great hairy wrists clutching her arms that she realized the meaning of that sudden imprisonment. It was then only that she understood the significance of Keudell's smile. Some time during her retreat across the room the door that led to the hall had been silently opened and closed. And without dreaming of what awaited her, she had backed into the arms of Keudell's gorilla-like accomplice.

She knew this, but she did not waste energy in any prolonged resistance, for she also knew that it