Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1895-03-21

There is something mysteriou.
here
Baylor brought 10 the door tw,
chairs that were standing in the hall,
and, stepping upon enc, looked
through the trassom.
He started, and asked Mrs. Pro.
witt to get upon the other and look
They saw the old lawyer still sit :
ting at the table with bundles OF
legal papers before him. lie was
TOO deeply engaged to notice that
his long gray hair had slipped down
over his forehead and almost over
hung his eyes. As they lookc,l
from his peaceful face to the loeu-
ment before him, Mrs. Prowitt
started violently, caught Baylor's
arm, and said:
Look at his hands. lie is max
ing the motions OF writing. but
there Is no pen in his hand. lie
is-'
She faltered from fright, and
Baylor said:
lie is madman, Mrs. Prowitt.'
NO, he is worse than that. lie
Is not real man. Something aw-
ful is going to happen tonight. |
did not quite trust that man Null
ford from the start. Why should
he have rented this room and not
occupied it if everything had been
right? This is terrible. Look there.
Did you see the screen move?'
NO, | did not: hut-'
lie stopped abruptly, for two
hands rose from behind the screen,
and, catching its extreme ends,
lifted it from the floor and carried
1T stealthily toward the old man.
They were large and muscular, ugly
and grlmy-such hands rs would
delve in the slime and vice of the
lower street. With the exception
of his hands, the person behind the
screen was hidden until he had car
rled it, noIselessly and stealthily,
until it almost touched the old
mans chair. There the hands
stopped it and stood it securely, and
instantly head rose from behind
it. The terrible face held the two
outside watchers mot:onless. The
vileness and wickedness of the slums
was ground into each blotched and
bloated feature. The terrible crea-
ture looked for aome minutes upon
the old lawyer with leer OF mur-
derous triumph. Then, with hor-
rible smile of satisfaction. the man
raised his right arm high over the
screen, his dirty, talon-like hand
clutching dagger.
Mrs. Prowitt shrank with scream
from the sight, and fell to a sitting
posture upon her chair; while Bay
lor, aroused to action, pounded up
on the glass of the transom and
kicked upon the door, but the old
lawyer continued peacefully writing
at the table, and the assassin WAS
not stayed in his purpose. With
swift, skillful stroke, the knife fell,
and Baylor saw it sink into the
lawyers breast, saw him writhe up
on the chair and fall to the floor.
lie leaped from the char and threw
himself against the door, but it
withstood his force.
Help me here, Mrs. Prowitt,' he
cried. The lawyer has been muir
dered. The door is locked upon the
inside. Help me break it in
Their united strength at last
broke the lock, and the door swung
in. Baylor took one rapid step for
ward, but stopped upon the sill with
a startled cry. The room was dark
and silent. No moan or sound Of
death struggling came from the
murdered man under the table.
a match, Mrs. Prowitt, he said:
for the love of heaven, let us have
a light here"
There is a match-safe over the
washstand in the corner gasped
the landlady.
For few moments Baylor groped
in the blackness for a match. At
last he struck one, and the gas
pulled up. lie shrank back against
the wall by the door. The room
was entirely deserted; the table was
bare of legal papers; the screen
stood In its place near the window;
and there was no body Of a muir
dered man upon the floor, nor any
blood or other trace Of him.
The room was precisely as it had
been before the lawyer came.
In the midst of an animated dis
cussion at Mrs. Piowitt's table next