Part 41 (1/2)

Almost as he spoke there came a sound, from the pa.s.sage outside, that led him to slide his hand across the table--and to seize his revolver.

The visible presence of the little weapon rea.s.sured him; and, as a further sedative, he resorted to tobacco, filled and lighted his pipe, and leant back in the chair, blowing smoke rings towards the closed door.

He listened intently--and heard the sound again.

It was a soft _hiss_!

And now, he thought he could detect another noise--as of some creature dragging its body along the floor.

”A lizard!” he thought; and a memory of the basilisk eyes of Antony Ferrara came to him.

Both the sounds seemed to come slowly nearer and nearer--the dragging thing being evidently responsible for the hissing; until Cairn decided that the creature must be immediately outside the door.

Revolver in hand, he leapt across the room, and threw the door open.

The red carpet, to right and left, was innocent of reptiles!

Perhaps the creaking of the revolving chair, as he had prepared to quit it, had frightened the thing. With the idea before him, he systematically searched all the rooms into which it might have gone.

His search was unavailing; the mysterious reptile was not to be found.

Returning again to the study he seated himself behind the table, facing the door--which he left ajar.

Ten minutes pa.s.sed in silence--only broken by the dim murmur of the distant traffic.

He had almost persuaded himself that his imagination--quickened by the atmosphere of mystery and horror wherein he had recently moved--was responsible for the hiss, when a new sound came to confute his reasoning.

The people occupying the chambers below were moving about so that their footsteps were faintly audible; but, above these dim footsteps, a rustling--vague, indefinite, demonstrated itself. As in the case of the hiss, it proceeded from the pa.s.sage.

A light burnt inside the outer door, and this, as Cairn knew, must cast a shadow before any thing--or person--approaching the room.

_Sssf! ssf!_--came, like the rustle of light draperies.

The nervous suspense was almost unbearable. He waited.

_What_ was creeping, slowly, cautiously, towards the open door?

Cairn toyed with the trigger of his revolver.

”The arts of the West shall try conclusions with those of the East,”

he said.

A shadow!...

Inch upon inch it grew--creeping across the door, until it covered all the threshold visible.

Someone was about to appear.