It might be as well to try that lock, but he would have to cross a very wide strip of moonlight in order to do so, and he feared to attract attention to his extreme inquisitiveness.

Yet who was there to notice him at this hour?
Mr.
Cumberland had not moved, the girls were upstairs, Zadok was busy with his paper, and the footman dozing over his pipe in his room over the stable.

Sweetwater had just come from that room, and he knew.
A quiet stable-yard and a closed door only ten feet away! He glanced again at the latter, and made up his mind.

Advancing in a quiet, sidelong way he had, he laid his hand on the small knob above the lock and quickly turned it.

The door was unlocked and swung under his gentle push.