After a time, to her horror, she heard the shutters being unbarred. The window opened, and Captain Richmond put out his head.
“Is anybody there?” he said. “I thought I heard some one speak. Is anybody there?”
There was no answer.
Augusta, in terror, was hiding behind a bush of laurustinus.
Augusta in terror was hiding behind a bush of laurustinus.
“I must have fancied it,” thought the Captain,
He waited for another minute, then shut the window, refastened the shutters, put out the light, and went up to his own room.
Augusta breathed a sigh of relief. Creeping carefully forward, she reached the wistaria, and clutching the cord, began cautiously to ascend. But if she had been nervous descending from her window, that was nothing at all to her present feelings. She was thoroughly unstrung, and very tired. When she had nearly reached the top she gave a sudden lunge forward, missed the rope, and only saved herself by clutching hold of the bare arm of a part of the vine.
In doing so she gave her wrist intolerable pain, and very nearly fainted. But the danger in which she found herself steadied her nerves sufficiently to enable her to make another great effort, and a moment later she was safe inside her room.