CHAPTER 37Miss Silver suggested that they should leave by way of the back door. In Miss Cunningham’s probable state of mind she would not be able to recall with any certainty whether she had ever locked it. Besides, by the time she came to consider the matter at all too many other things would have happened for it to be of any importance. They came out on to the paved yard and by way of a gravelled path to a garden gate. As Craig closed it behind him, the church clock gave four warning strokes to announce the hour, and then struck one. The night air was cool and soft. After the dusty passage and the airless shut-in feeling of the kitchen and scullery it had a living quality. Craig filled his lungs with it. To creep by stealth through another man’s house in the middle of the night was not

