"He's coming now through the yard! Don't move till I start something.

Let him get his paws on the sparklers." Silence again.

And then a low rasping at the window, like the gnawing of a rat; then, inch by inch, the sash was lifted.

There was the sound as of a body forcing its way over the sill cautiously, then a step upon the floor inside, another, and still another.

The figure of a man loomed up suddenly against the glow of a flashlight as he threw the round, white ray inquisitively here and there over the rear wall.