"On the dock!" he stammered to the darkness. "A noise!"
As the others crept to the door he scratched rapidly and silently with a match on the piece of paper the location of the house, the nature of the job, and an appeal for help. When he was through he heard the others coming back.
"If your nerves jump like that, Simmons, what a chance we'll have!" George said. "Not a sign. Light up."
Garth struck the match and relighted the lamp.
"I never take unnecessary risks," he said simply.
Nora, he knew, would guess that his excess of caution was a police trick. His eyes sought her anxiously as the lamp flamed, but she gave no sign. After a moment she whispered:
"Let's start. It—it frightens me here."
The leader opened the door.
"It's time," he said. "They're asleep in the house by now."
They followed him, threading obscure spaces and alleyways to the unlighted end of a street which deployed into a stone mason's yard, and always Garth asked: