They turned toward the door to escape, but a strange and menacing figure blocked their way.

It was the Unknown--no longer the bewildered stranger who had stumbled in through the living-room door--but a man with every faculty of mind and body alert and the light of a deadly purpose in his eyes. He covered the group with Miss Cornelia's revolver.

"This door is locked and the key is in my pocket!" he said in a savage voice as the red light at the window grew yet more vivid and muffled cries and tramplings from overhead betokened universal confusion and alarm.