Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-26

! for granted that your servant had OK.
! planned"
"I have not seen him." with the short
reply, and, Hoskins moving forward at tha
| moment, i stood revealed to the sharp eyes
| of my host in all the glare of light which
the small lamp could boast
"I am DR.. A., of whom you have perhaps
heard" l said, boldly, setting fire to my
ships with an unfaltering hand. II sup
posed that you had sent directly to me-"
81 am something of a stranger here was
the evasive reply, and with long look al
me he was gone, leaving me in state OF
feverish uncertainty as to whether i was
unmasked or not.
Gladly now would have entered the sick
room alone on some preteXt or another, In
hopes of last word Of explanation, but the
slow pacing Hoskins was ever at my heels,
and to all my suggestions that the young
woman should be left entirely alone and
that Hoskins herself might take some sleep
while | kept watch, she brought forth the
same rambling argument. "A quilt In
chair and me in it couldn't be in any ways
disturbing to one more accustomed to COM
pany than to be without" she exclaimed,
amiably, until gave up, fairly worn out
/ took possession of the room assigned to
me as soon as q lamp a fire and neatly
sit lunch table had made it ready. Once
alone inside that room, the door shut on all
intruders and brought before the bar OF
sober judgment felt that straight jacket
was all lacked for fully equipped mad
man. Yet condemn my folly as | would, l
felt no desire to retreat Even then l
might have crept down stairs, on some pre-
text or other, have skunk from the house
and made off without much chance of detec-
tion. But there l sat- turning over and over
again every project that presented itself to
my feverish fancy for carrying out the
scheme of the crumpled note, which / now
boldly consulted.
Consult it as would however there was
nothing more to be got from it than that
was expected to help a perfect stranger a
young girl, apparently confined to her bed
with serious illness, to rise from that bed
and bolt through a second-story window,
guarded by an ugly bloodhound, out into a
freezing night, in the care of single man.
of so reckless a character that he had, earlier
in the evening, hidden himself in an inno-
cent mans carriage, killed that helpless
man. taken his belongings, and was now
fosting himself upon her notice under an
assumed name. A black outlook, / was
forced to admit, and don't mistake me by
imagining l made light of the painful cir
cumstances. l deplored them deeply, but
what would you have had?
Had the lady been plain reason might
have spoken with louder voice, or, at least,
it's faint piping have been listened to, but as
it was, l merely decided by the time my
lunch was finished that if anything was to
be done l must Immediately set in action
some one of the many operations neces-
sary.
Hoskins? What was to be done with her?
And then, from all that l could recall of
her personality beyond her loosely balanced
tongue and the fact that she was large and
dark one little thing came back to me which
brought me to my feet a hopeful smile
struggling with the swollen melancholy of
my features. She had very red nose, which
might result from a dsordered stomach and
might not
Very softly opened the door of my room,
for had no wish to disturb the slumbers OF
the rest of the household, and very softly
tiptoed to the door of the sick room, which
l found standing few inches ajar, on ac-
count of the heat, 1 surmised, for l could