There came a day when no man moved about the house or grounds. Sophie Lengholm met her inquiries with the grim assurance that they would be back in a little. Penelope knew that she lied. She twisted her brains for some method of using the situation to her advantage. It was a case of woman to woman only. They were alone together, save only for the big Alsatian.

Other things being equal, Penelope knew that in a hand to hand encounter she would have no chance with the elder woman. She moved with apparent aimlessness about the house and grounds seeking for something that might serve as a weapon. At last her eye fell on a short and heavy poker in the dining-room, and she tested its balance and weight critically, although with a little shudder. She knew that if she permitted herself to think she would not have resolution enough to go on with the thing that was in her mind. But it was either that, or an unresisting acquiescence in anything that might befall.