A policeman, standing rigidly outside the house, making signs with his hands to somebody. A sound of feet creeping down the area steps, the sudden pop and bang of a door forced in by a lever.
"Look to yourself," Leona cried, "they are here. There is a ladder in the garden that leads out to the roof. Never mind me."
René had no intention of doing anything of the kind. A dim, blue-coated figure stood in the doorway of the dining-room. With one spring René was upon him, and carried him to the floor. There was a groan and a snarl and a snore, and the policeman lay on his back utterly oblivious for the moment.
René Lalage raced up the stairs. The house was not familiar to him, but he quite understood the meaning of what Leona had said about the ladder. As to the woman herself, she was quite at home there. She slipped into the back drawing-room, and thence across the hall into the drawing-room. The window catch was unfastened, as she had looked forward to this way out, and an instant later she was in the cool air. She could hear the shouts and yells in the house; presently she heard the cry of a policeman far overhead. René's means of escape had been discovered, and he was being pursued over the housetops.
"I hope they get him," Leona said between her teeth. "I hope they get him. And may they keep him for the rest of his life."
She hurried down the garden to the green gate. A little way beyond it was a policeman. No escape that way for the present. The garden was all right, but it would be light in two or three hours. There was a yell from the roof, and then a policeman's hoarse roaring, saying that he had "got him." The next time Leona looked out the policeman outside the green gate was gone.
When and where should Leona go now? She was utterly outcast. If it was possible----
"It is possible," she cried aloud. "Fool not to have thought of it before. What better hiding-place could I have than in the Corner House!"