Radcliff could stand no more. With one bound he cleared the table, knocking over the lamp as he did so. Instantly the light was extinguished, plunging the place into total darkness.
The scream was repeated, followed this time by a ghastly sort of chuckle coming out of the darkness. Even Rook’s iron nerve gave way. With what seemed an echo of the spectral yell, he plunged forward, collided with a long, old-fashioned window that opened into the room, and plunged clean through the frame, with a crash of glass and splintering of wood.
Tom felt his scalp tighten with terror. His tongue seemed to cleave to the roof of his mouth. He could not stir from the spot as he heard those fearful steps drawing closer and closer.
All at once, as he stood stock still, his heart pounding till it shook his frame, something happened that changed him from inaction into wild panic.
From the direction in which he judged that the door leading from the large room into the small one must lie there suddenly appeared a spectral figure of seemingly unusual height. It was gleaming white and had an arm outstretched.
With a cry of fear Tom dashed off into the darkness. In his panic he did not know where he ran. As he sped along he could hear the swift pitter-patter of pursuing footsteps.
All at once, as Tom ran, the ground seemed to subside from under his feet, and he felt himself falling—falling forward into space!
CHAPTER XIX—MR. STEPHEN MELVILLE
In an office on lower Wall Street, New York, overlooking the East River with its bustle of water traffic, sat Stephen Melville, the man to whom Rook’s message had been addressed—a message that, as we know, he had not received. Melville was a man of about forty-five, heavy-jawed, coarse-lipped and bulky-necked, with a big, heavy body. But about the man there was, withal, a suggestion of brutal strength.
On the door of Melville’s office was painted the word “Private.” Without this screened-off sanctum was a busy room full of clerks and stenographers. On the door of this outer office appeared the words: “General Offices of the Artillery Devices, L’t’d.—Stephen Melville, President.”