Page:Chesterton - The Club of Queer Trades.djvu/255

The Seclusion of the Old Lady you yell, but these devils might do some thing—something sudden—or odd. I can't feel it's safe."

"I know of nothing that is safe," said Basil, composedly, "except, possibly—death," and he went up the steps and rang at the bell. When the massive, respectable door opened for an instant, cutting a square of gaslight in the gathering dark, and then closed with a bang, burying our friend inside, we could not repress a shudder. It had been like the heavy gaping and closing of the dim lips of some evil leviathan. A freshening night breeze began to blow up the street, and we turned up the collars of our coats. At the end of twenty minutes, in which we had scarcely moved or spoken, we were as cold as icebergs, but more, I think, from apprehension than the atmosphere. Suddenly Rupert made an abrupt movement towards the house.

"I can't stand this," he began, but almost as he spoke we sprang back into the shadow, for the panel of gold was again cut out of the black house front, and the burly 233