“She’s going to that end of the hall overlooking the balcony. I’ll follow her. You hurry around through the corridor, so as to watch her from the opposite side of the hall. We then will have her guarded from both directions.”
“Suppose she goes out on the balcony?”
“Slip out through one of the other windows. You must not lose sight of her.”
“I’ve got you,” Chick muttered, as he turned at the head of the stairs and hurried away.
Carter followed the woman in the opposite direction, admiring her outward composure and the nerve she was displaying. He saw her enter the last of the broad doors and thread her way by the throng of dancers, finally halting near one of the windows leading out to the balcony, where she was immediately joined by a colonel of the Guards, in full-dress uniform, and a lady, with whom he had been dancing.
Carter paused in the broad doorway, with a quick and searching glance in each direction. He caught sight of Chick, just entering a door directly across the broad, brightly lighted hall. He saw Edna Thurlow amid the throng of dancers, and noticed that she was pale and paying little attention to the remarks of her partner. He saw, too, the tall form of Mr. John Dorson, who then was standing alone near the second window beyond that near which Mrs. Thurlow had halted.
Though none could know it save the miscreant who had planned the daring job, the situation then was one for which he had been waiting, the crucial moment when conditions assured him of success, when the avenue fronting the veranda was unobstructed, when flight would be easy, when the throng in the ballroom were absorbed in the dance, when the strains of orchestral music drowned all other sounds, and when the victim of his designs had paused at a time and place that perfectly served his purpose.
Two inconspicuous, bearded men in evening dress, who had apparently been talking carelessly on the balcony, suddenly separated.
One of them glided quickly toward the window near which Mrs. Thurlow was standing, taking a position close against the wall.
The other moved in the opposite direction, stopping short near the second window and taking a small electric flash light from his pocket. Hooding it with both hands, so that its glare might not be observed by any of the persons then on the balcony, he lighted the lens for a moment, so holding it that it could be seen from the grounds, on which motionless motor cars then were parked.