At first I
thought the sound proceeded from rats scampering over the tin boxes; but
upon listening attentively, I distinctly heard the lid of a metal box
opened by some person, and again carefully closed.
After a few moments, I heard another box open, and a sound as though
some one was searching among the contents.
Unfortunately my bedstead was the most horrible creaker, in which it was
impossible to turn without producing a noise that would create an alarm,
should a thief be on the alert.
I always slept with a pistol under my pillow, therefore, I gently
grasped the revolver in my hand, and endeavoured quietly to get out of
my noisy bed.
The wretched piece of furniture gave the most alarming creak; this was
immediately succeeded by a sound in the next room of the sudden closing
of a box, and the movement of some person. I could not be sure that it
was not Lady Baker, who had perhaps required something from a box, and
did not wish to disturb me. This was not likely, and I felt that no time
must be lost, as my bedstead had given the alarm. I therefore sprang out
of bed and rushed through the open doorway, just in time to see some
person jump through the Venetian blinds on the river side of the house.
