One's nerves get sort of taut.

Pretty stiff business.

If I'm ever caught, the penitentiary sentence I get will be the smallest part of what's to pay." A round button of light played along the wall from the flashlight in his hand--just for an instant--and all was blackness again.

But in that instant Jimmie Dale was across the hall, and his fingers were tracing the telephone connection from the instrument to where the wires disappeared in the baseboard of the floor.

Another instant, and he had severed the wires with a pair of nippers.
Again the quick, firefly gleam of light to locate the stair case and the library door opposite to it--and, moving without the slightest noise, Jimmie Dale's hand was on the door itself.