The true Democrat. [volume] (Bayou Sara [La.]) 1892-1928, 1898-04-02

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RNEX5a:S~G ture out, I Of
I SS7Ss.~ fered to 60 for
them. We were
all alone in the house, for father and
mother had gone to the country for q
few days, and Tom, Of course, was
away ct the office.
When I opened the door to 60 out
found All Sin, our Chinese washerman,
standing on the door mat. He could
speak no English, so I did not waste
any words on him, but just motioned
to him to 60 upstairs; he would find
Nellie, thought, and she could give
him the clothes. I did not want the
bother Of going back. I did not coll
out to tell Nellie he was going up;
did not think 1t necessary.
/ must have been gone about three
quarters Of On hour, for the little
dairy where we got the fresh eggs was
four long blocks away, and l stayed
awhile talking to the young girl who
waited on me. 1t was getting dusk
when I reached our door, and I re-
member being surprised when looked
up ct the transom to see that the hall
lamp was unlighted-Nellie had such
horror Of darkness. was even
more surprised when I opened the
door to see All Sin disappear down the
passage and enter the kitchen-the
kitchen, dining room and Toms room
are the only rooms on the first floor.
Did 1 only imagine it, or was there
something furtive in the Mongolian's
movements?
':Bah, how fanciful am getting" I
thought. "Nellie has told him to 90 in
there to get the 'soiled kitchen towels. {"
I lighted the hall lamp, left the
eggs on hetable and ran up the stairs.
When reached the landing saw
something which made me so faint that
I had to lean against the banister for
support.
So that you will quite understand
the position in which found myself,
I will describe our upper hall and the
situation Of the rooms. Directly oppo-
site the landing was a window over.
looking the back yard; the bedroom
Nellie and I occupied together was on
the left side, the door opening near
the head Of the stairs. The hall was
floored with white marble-a curious
fancy Of my fathers. In front of each
door was thick woolly red mat. Now,
all the rooms were closed and trucking
from under the doors of our room was
a thin red stream, which formed o
great pool, and which, though it had
seemed so dark downstairs, was here
quite discernible in the half light
which came from the hall-window.
In flash saw it all. The China
man had killed my sister; it was her
life blood which trickled from the
door and lay in that CHASTITY pool on
the white marble. I gathered my
skirts to step over it and enter our
room and verify my awful fears, when
I heard stealthy, mutled football on
tho stairs. In the horror of my dis
covery I had forgotten that the China
man was still in the house. In a
moment he would be upon me, and 1
would share the terrible fate of my
sister, who must be dead, for who
could lose all that blood and live?
Being sure, then, that she was beyond
my aid, I felt that must try, if pos
sible to save my own life. But how?
Outside Of the hall window was a wide
stone shelf on which we kept pot
plants; near it was a stationary ladder
which the workmen used to ascend
when the roof needed repairing.
I sprang lightly over the horrible
pool, ran noiselessly across the hall,
and was on the window sill getting out
when the Mongolian's head appeared
above the stairs. He saw me, uttered
an inarticulate, cultural sound, and
swiftly followed me. made spring,
reached the ladder and climbed to the
roof: I would not descend to the yard
the chances of escape were less that
way, for the wooden fence round the
yard was very high, and as the houses
on either side were unoccupied it
would be quite possible for me to be
murdered without any neighbors he+r-
lug my cries. If once I could reach
the flat roof of our house I thought ]
would be safe, for the roofs of the
houses in our block were as we'll
known to me as the street. 1 was
something Of tomboy, and on even
ings when the cats made tho night air
hideous with their concerts. Tom
and I used often to go on the roofs and
hunt them, sometimes chasing them
the whole block, he clad in his pain
mas and I in my cycling suit.
1t was, therefore, an easy matter for
me to climb the ladder, but just as I
had crossed the roof and was about to
drop myself onto the next, which was
lower than ours, the dreaded Celestial
head again appeared, this time just
above the last rung of the ladder. Oh,