In the meantime it seemed that this way of entering the house was definitely blocked.  He paused a moment to consider other plans, but, while he stayed there in thought, he heard the rattle of pans.  It decided him to stay a while longer.  Apparently she was washing the cooking utensils, and that meant that she was near the close of her work for the evening.  In fact, the rim of light, which showed between the door frame and the door, suddenly snapped out, and he heard her footsteps retreating.

Still he delayed a moment or two, for fear she might return to take something which she had forgotten.  But the silence deepened above him, and voices were faintly audible toward the front of the house.

That decided Ronicky.  He opened the door, blessing the well-oiled hinges which kept it from making any noise, and let a shaft from his pocket lantern flicker across the kitchen floor.  The light glimmered on the newly scrubbed surface and showed him a door to his right, opening into the main part of the house.

He passed through it at once and sighed with relief when his foot touched the carpet on the hall beyond.  He noted, too, that there was no sign of a creak from the boards beneath his tread.  However old that house might be, he was a noble carpenter who laid the flooring, Ronicky thought, as he slipped through the semi-gloom.  For there was a small hall light toward the front, and it gave him an uncertain illumination, even at the rear of the passage.

Now that he was definitely committed to the adventure he wondered more and more what he could possibly gain by it.  But still he went on, and, in spite of the danger, it is doubtful if Ronicky would have willingly changed places with any man in the world at that moment.

At least there was not the slightest sense in remaining on the lower floor of the house.  He slipped down the shadow of the main stairs, swiftly circled through the danger of the light of the lower hall lamp and started his ascent.  Still the carpet muffled every sound which he made in climbing, and the solid construction of the house did not betray him with a single creaking noise.

He reached the first hall.  This, beyond doubt, was where he would find the room of the man who sneered—­the archenemy, as Ronicky Doone was beginning to think of him.  A shiver passed through his lithe, muscular body at the thought of that meeting.

He opened the first door to his left.  It was a small closet for brooms and dust cloths and such things.  Determining to be methodical he went to the extreme end of the hall and tried that door.  It was locked, but, while his hand was still on the knob, turning it in disappointment, a door, higher up in the house, opened and a hum of voices passed out to him.  They grew louder, they turned to the staircase from the floor above and commenced to descend at a running pace.  Three or four men at least, there must be, by the sound, and perhaps more!