"Suppose you stay here and keep Mr. Quigley company for a few minutes," suggested Ashton-Kirk. "We'd like to look around a bit."
"I am not accustomed to the night air," complained the broker. "It has a bad effect upon my breathing."
"We shall be only a very little while," he was assured.
Ashton-Kirk crossed the street with Nora and Scanlon at his side. Quietly they entered at the little iron gate and stood for a space examining the house.
From the fan light above the front door came a dull glow, as though a subdued light burned in the hall.
"All the shutters are closed," said Bat, as he noticed this fact. "They may be brightly lighted inside and we not know it."
The keen, searching eyes of Ashton-Kirk caught a sort of glow upon the grass at one side; he moved in that direction and the others followed him. At the second floor a light flickered dimly in a window; it was a wavering, uncertain sort of thing, and Bat Scanlon recognized it at once.
"It's candle-light," said he. "Remember, I told you about seeing the girl——"
Here he felt Nora's cold hand close upon his wrist; at the window appeared the figure of Mary Burton, in the same loose gown as before and holding a candle in her hand. The light was full upon her face as she bent forward as though intent upon catching some sound. And the face was white and rigid with fear.
"Have you looked through the upper part of the house?" Ashton-Kirk asked Scanlon.