San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-02-09
THE GREAT HESPER.
BY FRANK BARRETT.

my watch behind me, yet 1 knew that
the murderer must be moving.
He had his work to do, and must have
made up his mind how to do it before
putting out the light. l could see moth
ing, and the silence and darkness were
horrible, with the possibility of his fall
ing upon me from behind. Yet how was
l to guard against that attack, not know.
ing where he was? Possibly his visual
power was stronger than mine.
l knew by the ticking of my watch
that the bed was somewhere behind me,
and that ought to be facing the oriel;
and as l strained my eyes to catch any
rays of light that might exist, l fancied
l detected a dim gray seam in the black
ness before me-possibly the curtains
masking the oriel were slightly parted.
As | continued to stare in that direc.
ton, | became convinced that this was
the fact, and slight though the assurance
was, it gave me some feeling of security,
in that direction l might know of my
foes approach. And, sure enough, at
that very moment the gray seam was
blocked out.
He was there, betw cen me and the
oriel My first impulse was to end the
terrible suspense, and spring forward
He might be close to me, or he might
be close to the oriel-it was impossible
for me to tell merely by the absence of
faint light. If, in springing forward, ]
fell short of him, it would be all over
with me. My force expended in the
spring, he would have me at his mercy,
and short death was the only kind of
mercy had to expect. Again, what
feeble light there was must fall upon me,
as / faced tan advantage for him,
terrible peril for me.
Iresolved to back toward the wall at
tie upper end of the room, and guided
still by the ticking of my watch, drew
back with the stealthy caution of a cat.
Suddenly saw the gray seam of light
sgain. Had he gone to the right or left?
knew not. Quickly l stretched my
foot out behind me; felt something, and
for the instant thought l had touched
the fellow, but, as turning about lgrOped
my hand forward, l encountered the
cold woodwork of the bedstead. twas
one of the carved pillars. drew myself
up, and put my back against it. Now,
at least, that dreaded stab in the back
was less probable.
/ am not coward, yet own that the
terror of the following minutes thrills me
now as l look back upon it. The i'm
penetrable darkness, the silence rendered
only more intense by contact with the
perpetual tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac, tic-tac,
tic-tac of the watch behind me, were
made terrific by the awful uncertainty of
my position.
! stood there waiting for the attack,
until, the suspense growing intolerable,
Il ink fhnf II hxr OBJ t1rlff
aloud to Brace, and precipitating the final
struggle.
81 will wait five minutes longer, and
no more" said to myself, resolving to
calculate the space fairly, and with due
allowance for false impressions. l cal
culated that two minutes had passed,
when fancied heard the bed creak be-
hind me. Was this one of the false i'm
pressions had promised myself to guard
against, or was the sound caused by the
man mounting upon the bed behind me?
The hair bristled upon my head as l
thought heard the creak repeated; yet
/ stood there, and counted another MN
ute, with every nerve and fibre prepared
to spring away.
"Now, surely four minutes are up" /
thought, and drew my head down into
my shoulders, for, as surely as if my eyes
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