He glided on about ten short, swift steps before he halted.

That was as far as his piercing eyes could penetrate.

If there had been a guard stationed outside the store Jean would have seen him before being seen.
He saw the fence, reached it, entered the yard, glided in the dense shadow of the barn until the black square began to loom gray--the color of stone at night.

Jean peered through the obscurity.

No dark figure of a man showed against that gray wall--only a black patch, which must be the hole in the foundation mentioned.