“Open the door, Florine! And close it as soon as I am outside.�
“Ready?� asked Florine, as she glided, soft-footed as a cat, to the door, and stood there with her hand upon the key.
“Yes.�
All this was said in the same low, but distinct tones in which the baroness and her maid had communicated[Pg 20] with each other ever since the former had come in after dining with Nick Carter.
The door opened silently. The baroness slipped through to the corridor. The door closed after her.
CHAPTER VI.
WITH THE AID OF HER MEN.
The lights had been lowered throughout the hotel. In the corridors a small electric light burned at wide intervals, with an occasional red glow to show where the fire exits were situated.
The baroness was glad there was so little illumination. She saw a light through the transom over the door of number forty-four, which was Nick Carter’s room. But it was not strong, and she decided that it might have been burning in the bathroom, casting only a reflection into the bedchamber.
“Strange that he should sleep with a light anywhere about him,� she muttered. “He isn’t the kind of man to do that, I should think. I don’t care, so long as he is asleep, however.�
She listened intently outside this door for at least a minute. So keen was her hearing that she believed she would hear his breathing unless he slept more quietly than most men.