Page:The Mystery of Madeline Le Blanc (1900).djvu/75

Rh patience, they lay several hours; but no signal came, and no one tried to enter the house or to leave it. Probably the situation was such that the officer in the hole thought it unwise to make the attack with so small a force; but they had made no provisions for retreat, and it was their understanding that the house was to be entered. Could it be that their fellow by the cellar window had been discovered and rendered helpless? At a little after two o'clock one of the officers crept to the hole and whispered his name.

"Yes, who is it?"

The first speaker crawled into the hole, and said, "Why don't you give the signal ?"

"The cellar is silent."

"Then it is time."

"Don't be hasty."

"How long has it been since the talking stopped?"

"I have not heard a sound all the evening."

"Then I think we should all enter at one door, for perhaps we are expected, and can accomplish most by the kind of entrance that will make the least possible