I hastened after Mother Borton, who was glowering at me from the doorway, and followed her footsteps in silence to the floor above. There was a dim light and a foul smell in the upper hall, both of which came from a lamp that burned with a low flame on a bracket by the forward stair. There were perhaps a dozen doors to be seen, all closed, but all giving the discomforting suggestion that they had eyes to mark my coming.
Mother Borton walked the passage cautiously and in silence, and I followed her example until she pushed open a door and was swallowed up in the blackness. Then I paused on the threshold while she lighted a candle; and as I entered, she swiftly closed and locked the door behind me.
“Sit down,” she said in a harsh voice, motioning me to a chair by the stand that held the candle. Then this strange creature seated herself in front of me, and looked steadily and sternly in my face for a full minute. The gaze of the piercing, deep-sunken eyes of the old hag, the evil lines that marked the lean, sharp features, gaining a still more sinister meaning from the wavering, flickering light thrown upon her face by the candle, gave me a feeling of anything but ease in my position.
“What have you done that I should help you?” she broke forth in a harsh voice, her eyes still fixed on my face.
“I really couldn't say,” I replied politely. “You have done me one or two services already. That's the best reason I know why you should do me another.”
The hard lines on the face before me relaxed at the sound of my voice, and the old woman nodded approvingly.
“Ay, reason enough, I guess. Them as wants better can find it themselves. But why did you sneak out of the house the other night like a cop in plain clothes? Didn't I go bail you were safe? Do you want any better word than mine?” she had begun almost softly, but the voice grew higher and harsher as she went on.
“Why,” I said, bewildered again, “the house sneaked away from me—or, at least you left me alone in it.”
“How was that?” she asked grimly. And I described graphically my experience in the deserted building.
As I proceeded with my tale an amused look replaced the harsh lines of suspicion on Mother Borton's face.