The moment
that happened, Terry strode forward as lightly and rapidly as possible.
Luckily the ground was quite firm. It had once been planted with grass,
and though the grass had died, its roots remained densely enough to form
a firm matting, and there was no telltale crunching of the sand
underfoot. Even so, some slight sound made the guard pause abruptly in
the middle of his walk and whirl toward Terry. Instead of attempting to
hide by dropping down to the ground, it came to Terry that the least
motion in the dark would serve to make him visible. He simply halted at
the same moment that the guard halted and trusted to the dark background
of the house which was now beside him to make him invisible. Apparently
he was justified. After a moment the guard turned and resumed his pacing,
and Terry slipped on into the narrow walk between the bank and the
adjoining house on the right.
He had hoped for a side window. There was no sign of one. Nothing but the
sheer, sloping adobe wall, probably of great thickness, and burned to the
density of soft stone. So he came to the front of the building, and so
doing, almost ran into a second guard, who paced down the front of the
bank just as the first kept watch over the rear entrance.
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