"Well, well, this will be soft walking," he said to himself. "I can open it with a picklock in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. In a minute more, that done, I can slip out of the house unheard."
Fishing out a ring of keys on which he had the practical little implement mentioned, Nick quietly inserted it into the lock, and a moment later he noiselessly shot the bolt and opened the door.
Then began the series of sensational episodes that made his work of that night so noteworthy.
Nick stepped into the basement hall, then quietly closed the door, locking it with a key found hanging on a nail near the casing, and which he discovered by means of his searchlight.
He then paused and listened vainly for any sound from the floors above. Obviously, no one in the house had yet been disturbed.
"The way is open, all right, so here goes," he said to himself, after a moment.
A flash from his searchlight revealed the stairway leading to the main hall.
Nick tiptoed toward it and began the ascent.
The top of the stairway ended near the middle of the main hall, and under the rise of stairs leading up to the next floor.
Nick arrived at the top stair, holding his breath, tread[Pg 8]ing as if on eggs, and feeling his way by means of the wall on one side and the baluster rail on the other.