For a moment my thought was to fling open the door and hurl myself upon him. I gripped my knife in angry hate, and my hand was on the knob. But the spasm of fury passed, and I felt limp and unnerved again. Somehow I knew the creature was waiting for me outside the door. All was very still but I seemed to feel a presence there just behind the panels. He must be standing motionless, listening, holding his breath, even as I was doing myself; and only that inch of woodwork divided us. But I hadn't the courage to open the door and put all to the hazard. The evening was growing dusky; already the room was full of hovering shadows. If only it had been daylight, I told myself; but all the while I knew I was a coward. Yet I couldn't stiffen my resolution. Indeed the blow of Jenny's absence with no word of where I was to find her had reduced me to a stupid self-pity, and I had no spirit left for fight. I slunk quietly away, treading with an infinitude of caution; and reaching the window I raised it as noiselessly as I could. Luckily enough it yielded easily to my hands, sliding up quietly without a creak. Every moment I dreaded to see the door flung open, and my enemy upon me. But I kept my knife in my teeth, ready; and always my eyes were turned towards the door. At length the window was raised, and with a great breath of relief I slipped out and over the edge, clinging to the ivy. And then as my face dipped below the sill I saw the message I had been hunting for. A card was wedged into a crack in the stonework; dirty it is true, and torn, but bearing across it in uneven straggling capitals my own name, though the last letter was missing as the card had been torn away in a ragged slant as though some one had snatched at it in haste only ripping off a corner. Carefully, though I was still in an agony of fear, I loosened the card, and climbing down to earth I turned it over without waiting to hide. And there I saw written, "Tommy, come to me. Our house is...." But the precious fragment that alone was of value to me had gone. I stood gazing at the dirty card with the untidy writing, turning it over and over, wondering what it meant. Why had Jenny hung out this summons for me, and then torn off the heart of the message? "Tommy, come to me." I read that again and again, mechanically, till I seemed to hear the high imperious voice speaking the summons. And with the feeling of Jenny's nearness I realized how like her it was to put the message outside her window, as though she knew I should climb in that way. I reproached myself for not having done so. If I had done so I might have found the card intact.