Then they looked over the banisters.

Horror! a servant was coming up with a loaded scuttle.
The children with one consent crept swiftly through the first open door.
The room was a study, calm and gentlemanly, with rows of books, a writing table, and a pair of embroidered slippers warming themselves in the fender.

The children hid behind the window-curtains.

As they passed the table they saw on it a missionary-box with its bottom label torn off, open and empty.
'Oh, how awful!' whispered Jane.

'We shall never get away alive.' 'Hush!' said Robert, not a moment too soon, for there were steps on the stairs, and next instant the two ladies came into the room.