The man stood for a moment irresolute on the stairs.
Then a key was turned in the front-door lock, and Philip appeared from the street—returned by an early train.
'Oh, Philip!' screamed Mrs. Sidebottom. 'Here is the man—Beaple Yeo himself! Has been hiding in the spare bedroom all night. He has my money.'
In an instant, the man darted into Mrs. Cusworth's room, and locked the door behind him.
CHAPTER XXX.
EXEUNT.
The man descending the stairs had hesitated, and his hesitation had lost him. Had he made a dash at Mrs. Sidebottom and Salome, swept them aside and gone down the passage to the garden door, he would have escaped before Philip entered. But the sight of Mrs. Sidebottom, her vehement demand for her money, made him turn from her and fly into Mrs. Cusworth's room. Thence he, no doubt, thought to escape to the garden, through the window.
For some moments, after Philip appeared and Mrs. Sidebottom had told him that the swindler was in his house, all three—he, Salome, and Mrs. Sidebottom, stood in the hall, silent.
Then a servant, alarmed by the cry, appeared from the kitchen, and Philip at once bade her hasten after a policeman.
Salome laid her hand on his arm and said supplicatingly, 'No, Philip; no, please!'