Opening a cupboard door, Kilfane revealed a number of pendent, ragged
garments, and two more bowler hats. Holding the garments aside, he
banged upon the back of the cupboard--three blows, a pause, and then
two blows.
Following a brief interval, during which even Mollie Gretna was held
silent by the strangeness of the proceedings,
"Who is it?" inquired a muffled voice.
"Cy and the crowd," answered Kilfane.
Thereupon ensued a grating noise, and hats and garments swung suddenly
backward, revealing a doorway in which Mrs. Sin stood framed. She wore
a Japanese kimona of embroidered green silk and a pair of green and
gold brocaded slippers which possessed higher heels than Rita
remembered to have seen even Mrs. Sin mounted upon before. Her ankles
were bare, and it was impossible to determine in what manner she was
clad beneath the kimona. Undoubtedly she had a certain dark beauty, of
a bold, abandoned type.
"Come right in," she directed. "Mind your head, Lucy."
The quartette filed through into a carpeted corridor, and Mrs. Sin
reclosed the false back of the cupboard, which, viewed from the other
side, proved to be a door fitted into a recess in the corridor of the
adjoining house. This recess ceased to exist when a second and heavier
door was closed upon the first.
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