Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1905-03-30
The SOrCerer
Of St. Giles
BY PROF. WILLIAM HI. PECK,

held him.
The floor of the closet was trap
door, which Clarence had lifted from
below, as the stone stairs terminated
there. He would have left the door
raised after passing it, suspecting that
he might find it difficult to raise it
should he desire to use the passage
again suddenly, but the door, heavy
and Shiny from beneath from it's rot
ting edge, had slipped from his hands
and fallen back to it's place, making
that noise which had first attracted
the attention of Bashfort to that direc-
ton.
Sosia, concealed in another part of
the house, and with no thought of
speedy flight from Dun Aengus as yet,
heard the same noise also and it star
tied him from his place of conceal
ment, as he knew instantly that the
noise had not been made by the three
who he knew perfectly well were in
search of him.
The vindictive sorcerer had expected
that Neil Bashfort would find the Os-
reds, also Martha and Helen all dead
for in his rage at learning of the
death of his four secret agents, he had
discharged his suffocating fumes and
used the secret bolts to shut up his in
tended victims from such relief as the
return of Bashfort might give them.
And doubtless the four in that cham
Der would have soon persisted had not
Bashfort broken open the window and
let fresh sea air in upon their para
lyZed lungs
The sorcerer. who had delayed his
departure from Dun Aengus only that
he might be sure that his vindictive
act had resulted in the death of the
four in that apartment, and with the
further purpose to make sudden end of
Neil Bashfort unless the latter should
agree to see him safe back to Galway,
was therefore chagrined when he dis
were seeking for him; and this discov-
cry he did not make until he ventured
from his place of concealment and
peered down. into the apartment
through the hole which Bashfort had
cut in the ceiling; and at the moment
when Sosia was thus peering through
the broken laths at the scene below,
Bashfort and the Osreds were cutting
away at the secret bolts of the door
Then Sosia had hurried back to his
hiding place to await the progress of
events, and in perfect confidence that
he would soon play a trick upon the
three by which they should be led to
certain death.
But the sound of the falling of the
trap door of the closet and the knowl-
edge that the noise could not have
been made by any of the three who
were in search of him, startled him
forth again, and he made the discov.
cry that Clarence Darrell, who, he had
supposed, was still locked up in Lon
don prison, was on his path. had doubt
less learned that Zeno Sosia was alive
else how could the young man have
aimed his course for Dun Aengus?-
and was now, perhaps with strong aid
not far off, come to rescue his be-
trothed.
oooiee Niiu llcI III OH lllSldul lIlldG-
inc that which was true-that Clar-
ence Darrell had no other aid to back
him in his peril than his own resolute
soul and daring heart.
Therefore Sosia, for the time being
lieving that the young man had obtain
ed a force at Galway or from some
other place, strong enough to capture
the Osreds and Bashfort, and thrice as
many more, and that this force would
soon be swa.ming over the dwelling
and over the ruins of Dun Aengus in
eager search of himself-and aware
that such search, conducted by Clar-
ence Darrell, who had once carefully
studied all the secrets of the place,
would be formidable, hurried back into
the darkness, clenching his fists and
gnashing his teeth in rage akin to
despair.
The pale and haggard fierceness OF
the young mans face, during the mere
fraction of second that Sosa's glance
rested upon it, ere he vanished from
the doorway, appalled, for time the
very soul of the amazed sorcerer.
But upon Basnfort the erect of this
sudden beholding of what he instantly
conceived to be the ghost, the spirit of
man whom he had once terribly
wronged-a man whom he had not
seen for twenty-five years, and Of
whom he had thought for many years
as OF one dead-was more appalling
than to the sorcerer.
Bashfort, whose extended hand had
held his pistol ready to fire, and who
had expected to Sc no one except zeno
Sosia, recoiled three PAGES.
He uttered a loud shout of dismay
as he thus staggered backward, ending
the cry with the words.
A ghost. The spirit of the man
killed in York;
At the same moment Clarence Oar.
rell leveled pistol at Bashfort's head
and dreg trigger.
But the weapon missed fire because
Of dampness, and Bashfort, drawing
trigger in return, the room roared with
the report, and the bullet whizzed
htarmlessly close to the ears Of Clar-
onco tss1s