He was in no sense a coward.  In action he was never afraid.  It was the waiting and wondering and the uncertainty that might have loosened his nerves a little.  But, somehow, a wave of intense horror swept over him for a second as he thought of the bestial maniac and his attendant Jew; and he would rather have faced a pack of wolves than have to do with either of these men.

Something brushing gently against the door set his nerves tingling afresh and made him tighten his grasp on the pistol.  The steel was cold and slippery in his moist fingers.  What an awful noise it would make when he pulled the trigger!  If the door were to open how close he would be to the figure that came in!  Yet he knew it was locked on the inside and could not possibly open.  Again something brushed against the panel beside him and a second later the piece of crumpled paper fell from the keyhole to the floor, while the piece of thin wire that had accomplished this result showed its point for a moment in the room and was then swiftly withdrawn.

Somebody was evidently peering now through the keyhole, and realising this fact the spirit of attack entered into the heart of the beleaguered man.  Raising aloft his right hand he brought it suddenly down with a resounding crash upon the panel of the door next the keyhole—­a crash that, to the crouching eavesdropper, must have seemed like a clap of thunder out of a clear sky.  There was a gasp and a slight lurching against the door and the midnight listener rose startled and alarmed, for Shorthouse plainly heard the tread of feet across the landing and down the stairs till they were lost in the silences of the hall.  Only, this time, it seemed to him there were four feet instead of two.

Quickly stuffing the paper back into the keyhole, he was in the act of walking back to the fireplace when, over his shoulder, he caught sight of a white face pressed in outline against the outside of the window.  It was blurred in the streams of sleet, but the white of the moving eyes was unmistakable.  He turned instantly to meet it, but the face was withdrawn like a flash, and darkness rushed in to fill the gap where it had appeared.

“Watched on both sides,” he reflected.

But he was not to be surprised into any sudden action, and quietly walking over to the fireplace as if he had seen nothing unusual he stirred the coals a moment and then strolled leisurely over to the window.  Steeling his nerves, which quivered a moment in spite of his will, he opened the window and stepped out on to the balcony.  The wind, which he thought had dropped, rushed past him into the room and extinguished one of the candles, while a volley of fine cold rain burst all over his face.  At first he could see nothing, and the darkness came close up to his eyes like a wall.  He went a little farther on to the balcony and drew the window after him till it clashed.  Then he stood and waited.