Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1905-08-10


by the firmness of the rust, which held
| the door closed.
| When Clarence forced the door back
upon it's hinges it had hidden smaller
| iron door, which opened into that
smaller passage by means of which
Sosia arrived behind the door of the
| dungeon before Clarence entered the
| latter.
Clarence came on through tie other
dungeon concealed the door of anoth-
err passage. He had never looked be-
hind the iron door, nor did he imagine
that anything more than solid wall was
behind it.
Holding his lamp little elevated
to guide his steps, he passed the iron
door and entered the dungeon.
Sosia, hidden by the open door, and
peering into the dungeon through a
crevice between the hinges, was able
10 watch the movements of his in
It nded captive.
Clarence walked across the dungeon
.aoor, going straight and without pause
| toward the entrance of that passage
which led to where he had left Helen
Beauclair.
The spot was dagonally opposite
to where Sosia lurked The sorcerer
could see every movement that Clar-
ence made.
Suddenly Clarence halted, recoiled
a pace, and exclaimed:
Great heaven! what is this ?"
He had just perceived the stone
door,
He wheeled about. his face pale,
surprised and full of dismay, and at
the same instant Sosia hurled himself
against the outer side of the iron door.
Well oiled and cunningly prepared
for this sudden violence, the door
swept swiftly around upon it's hinges
and clashed loudly as it closed, and
Clarence received a severe shock as he
hurled his weight against it.
"Oh." he gasped. this is not
chance! This is a trap! l am iost!'
! AS he spoke thus he heard the clang
and clash of bolts and bars on the
| other side of the door.
"Ho, there!" shouted Clarence. "To
whom do owe this? Speak,"
But he waited in vain for reply to
| his words.
| Turning his eyes toward his lamp,
which lay upon it's side where he had
| dropped it, he saw that it was about to
! go out. He hurried to it, picked it up,
| and advanced again to the stone door.
He examined this in vain to find
some means of moving it, His fiercest
| lunges against it would not ven jar
this solid door. Its surface, hewn and
| smooth, presented no place large
! enough to permit him to insert even a
finger nail. How far it extended on
either side into the sides of the pas
sage it blocked he could not judge
| But between it's to pand that of the
passage was a space more than foot
in length and about four inches wide.
This space was about on level with
Clarence's waist as he stood erect.
He knelt and shouted into this open
| ing:
Helen! Helen!"
| He had scarcely any hope to hear
her reply; or any reply more than
what came back to hin--the hollow
echoing, through the passage and in
the cave beyond, of his own voice
She Is not there or she would re
| ply he muttered. "Some one has
carried her off. Some one has entrap-
/ ped me. Who?"
There was legend of which he had
i heard in kilronan. 1t had been told
| him by the old fishsTman, d few hours
before; legend which said that once
beautiful peasant girl, to put to
scorn the superstitious fears of ner
4 comrades, had ventured to visit the
ruins OF Dun Aengus alone, and at
4 night; and that she had never been
seen nor heard of again; that the spir
it of the mist had seized her; that her
lover had on the next day ventured in
search of her, and that he had never
been seen nor heard of after.
Clarence Darrell. however, was OF
letoo strong mind to believe that 9th
er than mortal hands had shared In
thus entrapping him.
Receiving no reply to bis shouts, he
thrust his hand and arm through the
4 opening.
! This only enabled him to detect thai
the stone door was nearl va foot thick
So far as his extended fingers coul6
grope about on the Other side of the
impossible obstacle, they felt only 8
4 smoothly-heWn surface.
He arose from his examination OF
this door and turned his face toward
the outer one.
i The light Of his lamp fell squarely
i upon the inner surface of the iror
door, and he now perceived, what hi
had not seen before. a hole near the
center of the door. about two inches
in diameter.
i The door was of solid iron, about al
inch Trick, and through that hole
! shining bright in the rays of the lamp
Il Clarence saw peering human eye.
It was the eye OF the soreerer. glar
Ing with devilish exultation.
But Clarence was unable. Of course
1 to recognize this eye as one mat h,
had ever seen. Yet he knew Instant,
/ that It was the eye OF man. or 4 won
an. and his thoughts -,ent toward Lori
Gsniis and Martha Bashfort.
He did not yet suspect that the sor