But presently the glow became quite obliterated, as if by the intervention of some opaque body outside the window.

He rose hurriedly and went to the casement.

But at the same moment he fancied he heard the jamming of a door or window in quite another direction, and his examination of the casement before him showed him only the silver light of the thinly clouded sky falling uninterruptedly through the bars and foliage on the interior of the whitewashed embrasure.

Then a conception of his mistake flashed across him.

The line of the casa was long, straggling, and exposed elsewhere; why should the attempt to enter or communicate with any one within be confined only to this single point?
And why not satisfy himself at once if any trespassers were lounging around the walls, and then confront them boldly in the open?
Their discovery and identification was as important as the defeat of their intentions.
He relit the candle, and, placing it on a small table by the wall beyond the visual range of the window, rearranged the curtain so that, while it permitted the light to pass out, it left the room in shadow.