Then she started as if in fear that the gargoyle were behind her, about to spring at her from the dark.
CHAPTER XIV
A STRANGE REQUEST
“But, Lucile!” exclaimed Florence in an excited whisper, springing up in her bed after she had heard Lucile’s story. “How did the police know that something was going wrong in that house? How did they come to be right there when you needed them most?”
“That’s just what I asked the sergeant,” answered Lucile, “and he just shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘Somebody tipped it off.’”
“Which meant, I suppose, that someone reported the fact to police headquarters that something was wrong in that house.”
“I suppose so.”
“Is that all you know about it?”
“Why, I—I thought I heard someone hurrying away on the sidewalk just as I was going to enter.”
“You don’t suppose—”
“Oh, I don’t know what to suppose,” Lucile gave a short, hysterical laugh. “It is getting to be much too complicated for me. I can’t stand it much longer. Something’s going to burst. I think all the time that someone is dogging my tracks. I think someone must suspect me of being in league with this old man and the child.”