Presently, to my unutterable relief, he disappeared, and I heard his footsteps tiptoeing gently down the staircase. Here then was my chance of escape! Hardly daring to breathe, I rushed frantically to the door (Heaven preserve me!--it was locked again!) and tearing it open, I made directly for the passage leading to Dora’s room. On my way I heard a noise--a noise that fascinated and kept me still--the clanging of a bucket. What could a man be doing with a bucket at this time of night--a bucket!--and on that staircase so daintily furnished with velvet pile? Breathlessly I watched him ascend, his step light and springing, his head bent low, and the bucket clanging each time he mounted--clang! clang! clang! The agony I suffered--for I could now only conclude he was either a madman or burglar--was indescribable; I dreaded above all things the act of being seen--of encountering a glance from those evil eyes. Nearer and nearer he came! One more step, and he stood on the little lobby outside my bedroom door. What was he going to do--to enter my room or follow me? My heart stood still; a cold sweat burst out all over me; I essayed to shriek and implore the aid of Dora; my throat dried up, my tongue stuck to the palate of my mouth--I was speechless! helpless! hopeless! Another yard, and the uncanny stranger would have me in his clutches. At the crucial moment Heaven heard my silent prayer; he halted, I was saved! With one hand on the handle, he slowly--very slowly--opened the door, and crouching down on his hands and feet, crept quietly in, muffling the sound of the bucket. Incongruous sight!--a man, a madman, or a burglar with a common, an every-day bucket, and in the ecstasies of salvation I gave a weak, hysterical laugh!--a madman with a bucket! and what a bucket! After this little display of emotion, and being now in the full possession of all my motive faculties, I promptly fled, not pausing for the fraction of a second till I had reached the bedside of Dora and had shaken her to wakefulness. She listened to my story with blanched cheeks, beseeching me with terror in her eyes to make sure the door was locked and that her Bible was well in evidence. Her fears adding to my own, for I now concluded that there was some horrible mystery attached to what I had just witnessed, I hastily scrambled into bed, and, drawing the clothes well over our heads, begged her to confide in me the secret. “I hardly know how to explain it, Kate,” she whispered, “you will be so shocked! and I’m afraid you will blame us horribly for putting you in that room; but, to tell you the truth, we had nowhere else--at least nowhere suitable, as the ceilings and walls are sadly out of repair. “You see, we bought this house at a very low price; it had stood empty for a good many months, was in a sad state of dilapidation, and the owner was only too glad to get rid of it.