We did not wish to appear to be too interested, yet a certain
amount of curiosity was only proper.
My friend paused on the steps, turned, and came back.
"You're perfectly safe," he smiled, tapping the door with his
cane with a sort of affectionate respect. "It would take the
police ages to get past that barrier, which would be swung shut
and bolted the moment the lookout gave the alarm. But there has
never been any trouble. The police know that it is so far, no
farther. Besides," he added with a wink to me, "you know, Senator
Danfield wouldn't like this pretty little door even scratched.
Come up, I think I hear DeLong's voice up-stairs. You've heard of
him, monsieur? It's said his luck has changed I'm anxious to find
out."
Quickly he led the way up the handsome staircase and into a
large, lofty, richly furnished room. Everywhere there were thick,
heavy carpets on the floors, into which your feet sank with an
air of satisfying luxury.
The room into which we entered was indeed absolutely windowless.
It was a room built within the original room of the old house.
Thus the windows overlooking the street from the second floor in
reality bore no relation to it. For light it depended on a
complete oval of lights overhead so arranged as to be themselves
invisible, but shining through richly stained glass and conveying
the illusion of a slightly clouded noonday.
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