It was only a moment before Haworth, closely hounded by Augustus, appeared out of the darkness of the drive, and the old woman caught the metallic glint of something that Findlay had in his hand. Without an instant’s hesitation she hobbled toward him; if she could have got there she’d have torn the gun away from him or been shot in the attempt. But before she’d gone halfway the two had mounted the steps, and a second later Augustus was staggering back, with the door slammed in his face. Owing to Findlay’s outcries and his fierce beating against the door, Mrs. Temple could at first hear nothing else, but when his hammering and shouting subsided a little she began to notice again those strange noises from within. Upon this she hurried back along the side of the house, still avoiding the footpath and keeping in the bushes. Determined now to get in, even though against Mr. Haworth’s wishes, she made for the kitchen door, but couldn’t open it, and another rear door giving into the back hall was also locked. Then she remembered the basement entrance at the bottom of the stone steps. She found the door there fastened, as she’d expected, but there was a secret way to slide the bolt back by reaching in through an aperture in the side and finding a cord to pull. The cord was there, but she couldn’t make it work. It was tied in some way, and after desperate attempts she had to give it up. She was utterly terrified, for that drunken beast might get into the house with his knife or pistol and do Mr. Haworth some fearful injury. In addition to this danger something alarming was going on inside. She could hear hurried footsteps and what seemed to her strange menacing sounds. She started back toward the front of the house, hobbling and stumbling through the shrubbery, thinking she might find somebody down in Torrington Road who’d come to her assistance. But as she came toward the side windows of the room on the left, she was amazed to see that, instead of the darkness that had prevailed, an unusually brilliant light was shining out in narrow beams below the roller shades. At both windows these shades had now been pulled down, but as is quite commonly the case, they weren’t quite long enough to reach the bottom of the windows. She hurried to the one nearest to the front of the house and looked in through the narrow slit. At once she saw Mr. Haworth seated by the large table, reading a book. She watched him intently as he sat there occasionally turning the pages. He seemed entirely at ease and untroubled. There was nothing about him that gave the idea of anything being wrong or out of the way. It amazed her that he could recover entire equanimity so soon after the frightful time he’d been having with Augustus Findlay.