But the electric button which turned on and ignited the gas was also in the alcove.
Frank longed to reach that button. He longed to light the gas in order to look around for the intruder.
Of course he could have lighted it with a match; but he realized that such a thing might be just what the unknown hoped for and expected. The man might be waiting for him to strike a match.
The minutes fled.
“Something must be done,” Merry at last decided.
Then he resolved to leave the door, move slowly along the wall, reach the button and light the gas—if possible.
With the silence of a creeping cat, he inched along. Every sense was on the alert.
It took him a long time to come to the foot of the bed at the opening of the alcove, but he reached it at last. Was the masked man waiting for him in the darkness of the alcove? It seemed certain that he could be nowhere else in the room.
Frank hesitated, nerving himself for what might come. Surely it required courage to enter that alcove.
He listened, wondering if he could hear the breathing of the man crouching in the alcove.