The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1899-12-12
DURING THE NIGHT.
A ledger Wakes and Smells Gas.
Nobody In the House and a
General Mystery.
BY NEIL WYNN WILLIAMS.

BY NEIL WYNN WILLIAMS. 3
commencement
l have an affinity for awkward pre-
dicaments, and to submit to what is
popularity known as an experience"
is, If not exactly my daily lot in life,
my very frequent fate For the one
that l am about to describe paid half
a crown. The sensations that that half
crown brought to me were in excess of
what had anticipated and strained
every nerve in my body. Yet l am not
fool, and no one Is in his own estima-
ton.
Twas a November day; the time, 9
o'clock in the evening. was in Lon
don street and had just viewed to my
satisfaction a bow window in which
was hung up card with Apartments
to Lett printed upon it. With the
knowledge that l wanted a bed for the
night and with the card before me,
what could be more natural and with
in the ordinary lot of man than to as
cend the fight of steps that lay before
me, knock, ring, enter and secure a bed
for half crown, paid in advance? To
my mind there was such a plethora of
vulgar incident in this that | remem-
Der the transaction but dimly. That
was received by a landlady (she was
middle aged. think and escorted by
her to a comfortable bedroom on the
second floor that / was left there with
pen and ink, that | called for some
writing paper and was waited upon by
a girl who said that she would ask her
father for some, that when she had
tiers and afterward went to bed-all
this is fixed vaguely in my memory by
its similitude to many another night
that l have passed under a hired roof
Then there comes blank, which grows
into memory again with the lugubrious
sound of prolonged howl-a dogs.
1t was dark, so dark that the cur
tanned window of my room offered but
the faintest suggestion of the fog
swathed light without. Again and
again the oppressive silence and heavy
gloom around me were intensified to
my semiconsciousness by the howl
without dying down to a whisper, to
extinction. nervous feeling took
possession of me, and, fed upon the
darkness, sat up in bed and drew a
long breath to free myself Of its incu-
bus. What was there foul with the
night that it came so heavily to my
lungs? For the moment | was puz-
zled, but only for the moment, and
then, half sufocated, | calculated: 1T
is gas! There is an escape of gasY'
With wave of my arm l threw the
bedclothes to one side and with an ca
ger leg placed a foot to the floor. Then
stood up and hesitated. Should
ring, should l call? NO" l muttered
to myself as l reflected that it was
more than probable that the servant
would strike a match in coming to
my room. Besides, the escape was
perhaps In my room. A step and a
grope would tell me. l felt cautiously.
No; the tap was as it should bel
Then thought lapsed into instinct,
and action supervened. / crept quietly
to the door and, turning the key in its
lock with the caution of thief and
drawing the door into the blackness of
my room, faced the blackness that
vaster lay outside it. Gently, gently,
with a hand touching a cold wall. /
crept onward and to my left. Ny fin
gers were caught by projection. They
passed it by and sank into a hollow
twas a door. turned the handle and
whispered gently but distinctly through
the now half opened door: It's |. Mr..
Snipe, the lodger. Don't strike match.
There's an escape of gas. The house is
full Of it. Are you there? Do you
hear? There's an escape of gas
No answer, but again the dog howl
ed, and again l felt a nervousness
come over me as l entered the room to
feel for the bed and found it-empty.
In and out Of the walled blackness, to
another room and autobiography.
Then up the stairs. to right and left
and back again-nobody.
Down and down through the dark
ness, the ghost of light in hall glass,
with here a stumble and there a STUN
ble-to the basement. warm and odor-
ferrous with kitchen odors tainted with
house. Suddenly the dog ceased to
howl, and l heard the dripping OF a
water tap-drip. drip. drip And with
the fall of the water came to me a
measure of time. and thought again:
"What does it mean this empty, black
house? Why is this sitting gas seeth-
ing around me. and only me? An.
there is foul evil in the night. Away,
and out, out of the housew
With rush | fought my way up
step by step to the hall above and
CROPPED toward the dim light shining
pallidly through a narrow glass win
dow above the door. "WiI it be lock-
ed?' thought fearfully to myself. "Is
there not something following on my
track?' l turned the handle and pull
ed it iercely toward me. The door
yielded and rushed into the open.
Anything wrong, sir?" And with
the words came a broad fash of light
which, settling momentarily on my
face, dropped as quickly to my bare
feet and back again. Anything
wrong. STRIP And the voice drew clos
er, the light flashing past me into the
dark hall behind Then the outline of
helmet and cloak doomed darkly upon
me, and l found my voice in the pres
ence of constable of the law.
Eyes; the house is full Of gas. and
they've gone. might have been suf-
located. Perhaps they wanted to suf-
focate me. don't know-r'-
"Who've gone? What's their name?'
the constable interrupted abruptly.
''The landlady-the landlord-the
daughter. l don't know their names,
but look here, constable" and | pro-
ceeded to give my late experience" to
him in a wool of words
The man evidently did not know
what Interpretation TO place upon Ell
Their me or my story, and small won
der, l hardly knew myself. but extin-
gushing his lantern proposed that we
research the house together. This we
did carefully and cautiously At the
initial stage of our exploration we,
or rather he, discovered that the hall
gas burner was turned on full and the
gas issuing from it Mt a high pressure.
might have been blown out by the
draft" suggested the constable as he