It required some courage to go from window to window, particularly when Teddy reached that part of the room whence the sound had come, but she felt that she must have as much light as possible. Her fingers trembled as she tried to fasten the cord which held the blinds. Once their strength failed them, and the slats of the blind fell down with a terrifying clatter; but she pulled them up again, and wound the cord firmly about the hook.
At last the seven shades were up, and the room was as light as the world without. Only here and there lay a black shadow which might contain—anything! Teddy then took up her position near the door, that she might escape should affairs become very alarming, and tried to speak. At first not a sound came from her. She cleared her throat, and tried again.
"Is anybody in this room?" she asked. Only the silence and the shadows made reply. "I am quite sure some one is," she continued, gaining courage at the sound of her own voice; "I heard you breathe a little while ago, and I heard you knock something. If you don't come out I shall have to go and call Dr. Morton, who is upstairs. He is with my aunt Joanna, who is very ill. I should lock the parlor doors while I am gone, so you couldn't get out."
She thought this was a brilliant inspiration, quite forgetting the seven windows within easy reach of the ground. To this long speech, however, there was no reply.
"I declare, it is too bad!" went on Teddy. "I do think you might say something. I won't let any one hurt you, and if you are a robber I'll let you get away as easily as anything, if you'll only come out!"
She ceased again, and suddenly a voice replied. It sounded so near, and it was so unexpected—for she had now almost made up her mind that no one was there, after all—that it made Teddy jump.
"Do you mean that?" it said.
"Yes, of course I do," said she, speaking very rapidly, and fixing her eyes upon the old-fashioned sofa with the high back, whence the voice seemed to proceed. "Please come out and tell me who you are and what you want."
The sofa was placed across a corner, and as Teddy watched it eagerly it was pushed slightly from behind, and a boyish figure rose against the wall. There was something about the intruder that seemed familiar to her, and she stepped forward.
"Why—why, is it you?" she exclaimed, as the boy climbed over the sofa and stood in the moonlight.