If he was much longer, she would have to scream, as that woman had screamed. Flesh and blood has its limits; she had really reached them. She would either have to scream, or go mad--or something would happen to her; she had never felt like that before, never.
In the nick of time, when it seemed to her that something would have to go, that she must break down, Major Reith returned.
"I am very sorry to have kept you waiting so long, but I can't help thinking that someone has been playing tricks with me."
"Haven't you found her--the woman who screamed?"
It sounded so strangely in her ears that she did not know her own voice.
"I found no one. I believe my attention has been diverted with some ulterior purpose. Have you heard nothing?"
"What haven't I heard? I believe there has been someone in the next room."
"We will soon see about that--come. I'm going to take you into that room on the road to bed; and I shall have to rouse the house, but first I shall see you safe to your own chamber."
Only with the greatest difficulty, even with his support, could she return to the adjoining apartment. The instant the door was opened they made a discovery.
"You see," she cried, "it wasn't only imagination, someone has been here--the lights are out."