"What is it?" asked Pinto.
"A little alarm I've had fixed under one of the treads of the stairs," said the other. "I don't like to be taken unawares."
"Perhaps it is Crewe," suggested the other.
"Crewe's gone home an hour ago," said the colonel. "No, this is a genuine visitor."
They waited for some time and then there was a knock at the outer door.
"Open it, Pinto," and as the other did not instantly move, "open it, damn you! What are you afraid of?"
"I'm not afraid of anything," growled the Portuguese and flung out of the room.
Yet he hesitated again before he turned the handle of the outer door. He flung it open and stepped back. He would have gone farther, but the wall was at his back and he could only stand with open mouth staring at the visitor. It was Maisie White.
She returned his gaze steadily.
"I want to see Colonel Boundary," she said.