At last footsteps sounded outside—somebody ascending the stone steps above—and next second there was a click as a key was put into the latch of the front door.
"Here he is—at last!" the girl whispered. "Now we'll watch!"
They watched together—and by doing so learned some very strange facts.
CHAPTER VII
WHAT HAPPENED IN BRIDGE PLACE
Together Marigold and her lover crept up the kitchen stairs in the darkness, and heard Mr. Boyne moving about in the front parlour.
They heard him yawn as he threw off his coat, for the night was sultry, and there were sounds which showed that he was eating his evening meal. They heard the loud fizzing as he unscrewed a bottle of beer, and the noise of a knife and fork upon the plate, for he had left the door open.
After about ten minutes, for he seemed to eat his supper hurriedly, he flung off his boots, and in his socks crept upstairs to Mrs. Felmore's door, apparently to satisfy himself that she had retired.
"Hadn't we better get down," suggested Durrant, in a low whisper. "He may take it into his head to come down and search here."
"No, he never comes into the kitchen. So long as auntie has gone to bed he does not mind. Let's wait and watch."