While I was moving some of the chairs in order to give myself a run, Lucille came into the room.

She had hurried on a dressing-gown and her hair was all down her back, but she was much too simple-minded to think that such things mattered at such a moment.
"What is it ?" she cried.

"What _are_ you doing ?" Madame explained, and the two stood hand in hand while I made ready to burst in upon the mystery that lay behind that closed door.
I took a run, and brought my shoulder to bear just above the lock, wrenching the four screws out of the wood by the force of the blow.

I staggered into the dark passage beyond, with a sore shoulder and my heart in my mouth.

Madame and Lucille followed.