13909 Of course, it has the sort of excitement about it that the sportsman feels when he lies beside the watercourse and waits for the big game.
13910 It was very long, though - almost as long, Watson, as when you and I waited in that deadly room when we looked into the little problem of the "Speckled Band."
13911 There was a church clock down at Woking which struck the quarters, and I thought more than once that it had stopped.
13912 At last, however, about two in the morning, I suddenly heard the gentle sound of a bolt being pushed back, and the creaking of a key.
13913 A moment later the servants' door was opened and Mr. Joseph Harrison stepped out into the moonlight.'
13914 'Joseph!' ejaculated Phelps.
13915 'He was bare-headed, but he had a black cloak thrown over his shoulder, so that he could conceal his face in an instant if there were any alarm.
13916 He walked on tiptoe under the shadow of the wall, and when he reached the window, he worked a long-bladed knife through the sash and pushed back the catch.
13917 Then he flung open the window and, putting his knife through the crack in the shutters, he thrust the bar up and swung them open.
13918 'From where I lay I had a perfect view of the inside of the room and of every one of his movements.
13919 He lit the two candles which stand upon the mantelpiece, and then he proceeded to turn back the corner of the carpet in the neighbourhood of the door.
13920 Presently he stooped and picked out a square piece of board, such as is usually left to enable plumbers to get at the joints of the gas pipes.
13921 This one covered, as a matter of fact, the T-joint which gives off the pipe which supplies the kitchen underneath.
13922 Out of this hiding-place he drew that little cylinder of paper, pushed down the board, rearranged the carpet, blew out the candles, and walked straight into my arms as I stood waiting for him outside the window.
13923 'Well, he has rather more viciousness than I gave him credit for, has Master Joseph.