On every side, this square of dark, silent houses seemed to be assailed by the clamour of the encroaching city.

For some reason or other, however, it remained a little oasis of old-fashioned buildings, residences, most of them, of a generation passed away.

Sanford Quest entered the house with a latch-key.

He glanced into two of the rooms on the ground-floor, in which telegraph and telephone operators sat at their instruments.

Then, by means of a small elevator, he ascended to the top story and, using another key, entered a large apartment wrapped in gloom until, as he crossed the threshold, he touched the switches of the electric lights.