Apart from this he had few worries, certainly none serious enough to
keep him awake.
He was sleeping now, his head on his right arm, a sterilized Teddy-bear
clutched firmly in his other hand, with the concentration of one
engaged upon a feat at which he is an expert.
* * * * *
The door opened slowly. A head insinuated itself into the room,
furtively, as if uncertain of its welcome. The door continued to open
and Steve slipped in.
He closed the door as gently as he had opened it, and stood there
glancing about him. A slow grin appeared upon his face, to be succeeded
by an expression of serious resolve. For Steve was anxious.
It was still Steve's intention to remove, steal, purloin, and kidnap
William Bannister that night, but now that the moment had come for
doing it he was nervous.
He was not used to this sort of thing. He was an honest ex-middleweight,
not a burglar; and just now he felt particularly burglarious. The
stillness of the house oppressed him. He had not relished the long wait
between the moment of his apparent departure and that of his entry into
the nursery.
He had acted with simple cunning. He had remained talking pugilism with
Keggs in the pantry till a prodigious yawn from his host had told him
that the time was come for the breaking up of the party. Then, begging
Keggs not to move, as he could find his way out, he had hurried to the
back door, opened and shut it, and darted into hiding. Presently Keggs,
yawning loudly, had toddled along the passage, bolted the door, and
made his way upstairs to bed, leaving Steve to his vigil.
Steve's reflections during this period had not been of the pleasantest.
Exactly what his explanation was to be, if by any mischance he should
make a noise and be detected, he had been unable to decide. Finally he
had dismissed the problem as insoluble, and had concentrated his mind
on taking precautions to omit any such noise.
So far he had succeeded. He had found his way to the nursery easily
enough, having marked the location earnestly on his previous visits.
During the whole of his conversation with Keggs in the pantry he had
been repeating to himself the magic formula which began: 'First
staircase to the left, turn to the right......-' and here he was now at
his goal and ready to begin.
But it was just this question of beginning which exercised him so
grievously. How was he to begin? Should he go straight to the cot and
wake the kid? Suppose the kid was scared and let out a howl?
A warm, prickly sensation about the forehead was Steve's silent comment
on this reflection. He took a step forward and stopped again. He was
conscious of tremors about the region of the spine. The thought crossed
his mind at that moment that burglars earned their money.
As he stood, hesitating, his problem was solved for him. There came a
heavy sigh from the direction of the cot which made him start as if a
pistol had exploded in his ear; and then he was aware of two large eyes
staring at him.
