But midway he stumbled in the dark, and the stair creaked loudly.

Above his head a door opened sharply, and when he reached the landing he saw the figure of Thalassa framed in the lighted doorway at the far end of the long passage, listening.
"Who's there ?" he cried; then his eye fell on Barrant, advancing swiftly from the darkness towards the light.

"What do you want ?" he said.

"How did you get in ?" Barrant looked past him into the room.

There was a litter of papers on the table and shelves, as he had last seen it, but it did not seem to him that anything had been disturbed.