He took the key from the door between the bedroom and the sitting-room, and applied it to the lock of the obstinate portal. The obstinate portal opened at once.
'Empty!' ejaculated Albert, putting his nose into a small dressing-room.
With a gesture of disgust Hugo turned away. In the same instant Simon withdrew his head into the sitting-room.
'I've seen him,' Simon whispered in hoarse excitement. 'He just popped out of the kitchen and came half-way up the area steps. Then he ran back. He saw me looking at him.'
'Ravengar?'
Simon nodded. This was the hour of Simon's triumph, the proof that he had not been mistaken in the theory which he had raised on the foundation of the photograph.
'Come along,' said Hugo grimly, preparing to rush downstairs.
But a singular thing had occurred. While Simon had been staring out of the front window, and Hugo and Albert engaged in forcing a door which led to emptiness, the door of the sitting-room, the sole means of egress from the first-floor suite, had been shut and locked on the outside.
In vain Hugo assailed it with boot and shoulder; in vain Albert assisted him.
'Keep your eye on the street, you fool!' said Albert to Simon, when the latter offered to join the siege of the door.