“I know I can bank on that, sir.” Chick waited until the taxicab had disappeared around a curve in the main road. He then followed the other for a short distance, presently vaulting a low wall and crossing a strip of rough land, from which he could steal into the grounds at one side of the Dacey dwelling. They were unattractive in appearance, denoting that the owner was far from being a man of means. Chick sized them up correctly, and was about to steal nearer the house to peer through one of the windows, when the side door was opened and a woman appeared in the lighted hall. She lingered briefly, gazing out toward the road, and then closed the door and vanished. “The deaf housekeeper,” thought Chick, who had easily seen her tall, gaunt figure. “She is evidently expecting some one, probably Dacey himself. There would be lights in more than that one room if he were at home. By Jove, if she is as deaf as Hogan stated, and also is alone there, I can easily enter unheard through one of the windows and search the house from cellar to roof. I could find Darling, all right, if he is confined there.” Not yet convinced that Dacey was absent, however, Chick still proceeded cautiously, approaching one of the lighted windows on all fours, then stealthily rising to peer between the curtain and the casing. He could see part of a cheaply furnished sitting room. An oil lamp burned on the table. The housekeeper was seated near by, absorbed in reading a newspaper. It was half past nine by a small oak clock on the mantel. Chick watched the woman for a few moments, then gently tapped once on the windowpane. The woman did not stir. Chick tapped louder, then knocked quite sharply, but the sounds brought no sign from the reading woman. “As deaf as a hitching post,” thought Chick. “I’ll force a window in the opposite side of the house. She might detect the chill of the night air, if I were to open a door.” Stealing around the house, Chick selected the side window of a front room, then shrouded in darkness. Thrusting his knife blade between the sashes, he easily forced the lock aside and was about to lift the lower section, when a flash of light deterred him. He saw it again in a moment. It flashed between the trees in the distance. It came from the lamps of an automobile running at high speed over the main road. Suddenly it diverged and a steady glare fell upon the road approaching Dacey’s place. “By Jove, it may be coming here,” Chick muttered, watching. “Dacey is returning, perhaps, just in time to prevent my search. Yes, by thunder, I am right--it is coming here.” The car was slowing down. The outlines of a limousine now could be seen. It swerved into a driveway approaching the house--and Chick dropped flat on the ground, close to the foundation wall, lest he might be seen in the glare of the headlights. He now saw that there were several men in the car, but he could not distinguish their faces. The number surprised him.