And presently my eyes were rewarded with the sight of a faint crack of light close to the floor ahead of me. It seemed to come from beneath the door of a dimly lit room at the end of the passage.
I stood still and listened. Not a sound came to me here, however, and if the room ahead of me had an occupant, he was either asleep or keeping very quiet; for I could hear nothing.
Taking every possible precaution against noise, I crept slowly forward, until at last my hand closed on the knob of the door from beneath which the light came. I turned it and it gave. And very cautiously I opened the door.
I was looking into an absolutely empty room. Not a stick of furniture or carpet broke the dead white of the walls or the brown of the polished wooden floor. There was not even a molding on the walls. The only thing in the room was a light bracket in the center of the ceiling in which a single electric globe shone. But on the other side of the room was another door.
Leaving the door behind me open for a means of retreat, I stepped silently across the polished floor and tried the handle of the door beyond. It was locked. I made very certain of that before I gave up trying it.
The only thing to do, then, was to select a door, this one or one of the doors back in the passage, and attempt to cut out the lock by means of the little file which Pride had given me. The door in front of me was a heavy one. Stooping down, I saw that the light from behind me shone on a heavy brass bolt in the crack between the door and the jamb.
If I tried this door, I would have to be working in the light too; for I had seen no switch on the walls.
Perhaps one of the doors in the passage would be safer. Perhaps, too, the air under one of them might be a little fresher than under the others, indicating a way outdoors. I stooped down and sniffed at the bottom of this door. But the same heavy, perfumed air met my nostrils as pervaded the entire place.
I turned back again to the other door then, and suddenly I stopped in my tracks and stood motionless. The door through which I had come was closed.
It might have blown shut, of course. I stepped silently forward and tried the handle, my heart in my mouth. This door, too, was locked. I was trapped! They had been watching me! I had been played with all the time!