Explore "The House of the Schemers" by Fred M. White on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The strain was evidently beginning to tell on the girls, for they stood looking at each other with dilated eyes. For once in her life Ailsa was inclined to shirk the inevitable, she had an hysterical doubt just for a moment that a friend might be making a signal, rather she was under the delusion that Lady Altamont knew of the secret passage. All the time the knocking was growing louder and more imperative. Ailsa shook off her fears.
"At any risk the thing must be done," she said, taking her hands. "If it is a friend, why we have no further cause for anxiety. If it is an enemy----"