Truth was, she had lost her sense of direction. She was not sure which way to go. She took a dozen steps forward. Finding herself confronted by a dark bulk, she started walking round it. Having paused to think, she found fear gripping at her heart. When she tried to retrace her steps she discovered that the stairs had apparently vanished. She was lost.
“Lost!” she whispered. “Lost in the subbasement of this great building at night!” Even as she thought this there came to her, faint and far distant, yet very distinct, the even tread of footsteps.
“It’s not Laurie. He doesn’t walk like that. It—it’s—” her heart stood still, “it’s a watchman! And here I am dressed in this magnificent garment which does not belong to me. Somehow I must get back to the third floor and to Rennie! But how? How!”
CHAPTER II
CRIMSON WITH A STRAND OF PURPLE
Panic, an unbelievable terror ten times stronger than her will, seized Lucile and bore her fleetly down a dark, unknown aisle. The very thought of being discovered by a watchman unknown to her, mingled with the sensation of the fear of darkness, had driven her well-nigh frantic.
“The cape,” she whispered to herself. “I must not be found with the cape!”
Had she but possessed the power to reason quietly, she might have known that the watchman, searching for an explanation of her strange conduct, would, upon her suggesting it, take her back to the third floor and Rennie. Not being in full possession of these powers, she abandoned herself to panic. Snatching the cape from her shoulders she thrust it under her arm and plunged on into the darkness.
In the deeper shadows she saw dim forms looming up before her. Some seemed giants ready to reach out and grasp her; some wild creatures poised to fall upon her from the dark.
Now she tripped and went sprawling. As she sprang to her feet she caught the gleam of a light. Thinking it the watchman’s flashlight, she was away like the wind.
At last pausing for breath, she listened. At first she heard only the beating of her own heart. Then, faint and far away, came the mellow chimes of the great clock announcing the arrival of half past ten.