It was
pitch dark against the wall of the house.
He turned to glance up at the window of the sleeping room over
the garage where Koku was supposed to spend the night. But Tom
knew the giant was seldom there during the dark hours. He was as
much of a night-prowler as a wildcat or an owl.
There was no light there in any case. But Koku did not use a
light much. He could see in the dark, like a wild animal. Tom did
not want to call him. If he must have Koku's help, he would have
to climb the stairs to his bedside. The giant always aroused as
wide awake as at noonday.
But while the young inventor hesitated a sudden, but muffled,
snap--the breaking of metal--sounded. Tom knew instantly the
direction from which the sound came.
Although he could see nothing up there at the bathroom window
because of the rain and the deep shadow, he knew that the
snapping sound meant the severing of the window lock that he had
so recently closed. Some instrument had been forced under the
bottom of the lower sash and pressure enough been brought to bear
to break the thin steel lever.
On the heels of this sound came another. A muffled buzzing
somewhere in the house--again! again! And then, startlingly clear
from the room over the garage, the burglar alarm went off in
Koku's chamber.
"It's all off now!" gasped Tom, and he ran to the foot of the
honeysuckle ladder up which he knew the enemy had climbed to get
to the roof of the porch.
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