Thus he sat bolt upright in his
comfortable little bed above the carriage house when a soft creeping
footstep stole up the gravel walk from the stables to the kitchen. The
night was very warm, and the open window at his elbow was shutterless.
In the dark he could see nothing at first, then he made out the figure
of a man, crouching low, and creeping around the kitchen porch to the
doctor's surgery window. Immediately afterwards a low, gentle, rasping
sound fell on his ears. He had seen enough of crime in the old days to
know the man was filing something. Should he awaken Watkins? What was
the use? Watkins would probably jump up, exclaiming aloud. He always did
when awakened suddenly. Perhaps, after all, he could alarm the family
before the man got in. Then, to his amazement, someone opened the window
from the _inside_. By this time Buck had got his "night-sight." The man
inside was exactly like the man outside, and he had evidently effected
an entrance into the house some time during the day when the maids were
upstairs, and had probably concealed himself in the cellar.
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