One, two, three, four, five. One, two,
three, four, five."
As the final number passed her lips at the third time of counting, she
crossed the Hall. Looking for nothing, listening for nothing, one hand
holding the candle, the other mechanically grasping the folds of her
dress, she sped, ghost-like, down the length of the ghostly place. She
reached the door of the first of the eastern rooms, opened it, and ran
in. The sudden relief of attaining a refuge, the sudden entrance into a
new atmosphere, overpowered her for the moment. She had just time to
put the candle safely on a table before she dropped giddy and breathless
into the nearest chair.
Little by little she felt the rest quieting her. In a few minutes she
became conscious of the triumph of having won her way to the east
rooms. In a few minutes she was strong enough to rise from the chair, to
take the keys from her pocket, and to look round her.
The first objects of furniture in the room which attracted her attention
were an old bureau of carved oak, and a heavy buhl table with a cabinet
attached. She tried the bureau first; it looked the likeliest receptacle
for papers of the two. Three of the keys proved to be of a size to enter
the lock, but none of them would turn it.
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