The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-08-27

it. We heard the sound of running feet and l the shouting of two voices, one answering the other, from the floor on which We were and from the one beneath My guide stopped and looked about her like one who is at her wits end. Then she threw open door which led Into bed- room. through the window of which the moon was shining brightly.
 a It is your only chance, snid she. IL is high, but 1t may be that you can jump It.
 'As she spoke light sprang into view at the further end of the passage, and saw the lean figure Of Col. Lysander Stark rushing forward with a lantern in one hand and a weapon like butchers eleaver In the other. l rushed across the bedroom flung open the window, and looked out How quiet and sweet and wholesome the garden looked in the moon night, and 1t could not be more than thirty feet down. I clambered out upon the sill but I hesitated 10 jump until l should have heard what passed between my savior and the rufnan who pursued me. If she were ill-used, then at any risk l was determined to go back to her assistance. The though had hardly flashed through my mind before he was at the door, pushing his way past her; but she threw her arms round him and tried to hold him back.
 Fritz Frltzn she cried, in English remember your promise after the last tme You said 1t should not be again He will be silent! On, he will be silentH
 You are mad. Eliser he shouted struggling to break away from her You will be the ruin of us He has seen too much. Let me pass I say! He dashed her to one side and. rushing to the win dow, cut at me with his heavy weapon l had left myself go. and was hanging by the hands to the sill. when his blow fell I was conscious of q dull pain, my grip loosened and l fell into the garden below.
 T was shaken but not hurt by the fall so l picked myself mp and rushed off among the bushes as hard as l could run for l understood that l was far from be- ing out of danger yet Suddenly, however as l ran, a deadly dizziness and sickness came over me. 1 glanced down at my hand. which was throbbing painfully and then, for the first time saw that my thumb had been cut off. and that the blood was pouring from my wound. l en1eavored to tie my handkerchief round 1t. but there came a sudden buzzing In my ears, and next moment l fell i'll q dead faint among the rosebushes.
 How long l remained unconscious cannot tell. Ii must have been a very long time, for the moon hand sunk. and a bright morning was breaking when l came to myself. My clothes were all sod den with dew. and my coat sleeve was drenehed with blood from my wounded thumb The smartng of 1t recalled in an instant all the particulars of my nights adventure, and I sprang to my feet with the feeling that l m ht ha zets set he safe from my pursuers.
 But, to my astonishment, when l came to look round me, neither house nor gar den were to be seen. l had been lying in an angle of the hedge close by the high-road, and just a little lower down was long building. which proved, upon my approaching it, to be the very sta tion at which I had arrived upon the pre- vious night. Were 1t not for the ugly wound upon by hand all that had passed during those dreadful hours might have been an evil dream
 Half dazed I went Into the station and asked about the morning train There would be one to Reading in less than an hour The same porter was on duty, found as had been there when l arrived. inquired of him whether he had ever heard of Col Lysander Stark. The name was strange to him. Had he observed a carriage the night before waiting for me? No he had not. Was there police station anywhere near? There was one about three miles off.
 "It was too far for me to go, weak and III as I was l determined to wait until got back to town before telling my story to the police. It was a little past when I arrived so I went first to have my wound dressed, and then the doctor was kind enough to bring me along here. put the case into your hands, and shall do exactly what you advise
 We both sat in silence for some little time after listening to this extraordinary narrative Then Sherlock Holmes pulled down from the shelf one of the ponderous commonplace books In which he placed his cuttings
 Here is an advertisement which will interest you,a said he Tt appeared In all the papers about year ago. Listen to l this: Lost on the 9th inst, Mir Jeremiah Having, aged twenty-sx, a hydraulic en- gineer Left his lodgings at 10 o'clock at night, and has not been heard of since. l Was dressed In, &c., &c, Hal That repre- sents the last time that the Colonel need ed to have his machine overhauled l fancy"
 Good heavnsr' cried my patient. Then that explains what the girl said"
 Undoubtedly. II Is quite clear that the Colonel was cool and desperate man, who was absolutely determined that nothing should stand in the way of his i little game like those out-and-ont pirates who will leave no survivor from a cap 1 tured ship. Well every moment now Is precious, so if you feel equal to ii, we l shall go down to ScOiidnu 1dfu hi pHte 1 as preliminary to starting for Eyford l Some three hours or afterward we were all In the train together, bound 1 from Reading to the little Berkshire vil- l lage. There were Sherlock Holmes, the hydraulic engineer, Inspector Bradstreet i of Scotland Yard. plain-clothes man 1 and myself. Bradstreet had spread an ordnance map of the county out upon the seat and was busy with his com passes drawing circle with Eyford for 1 It's center.
 'There you are" said he. That circle is drawn at n radius of ten miles from the village. The place we want must be somewhere near that line You said ten miles, I think, sir"
 "It was an hours good drive" And you think they brought you back all that way when you were uncon- scious2" "They must have done SO. I have n confused memory. too, of having been lifted and conveyed somewhere"
 What I cannot understand" said l. lis why they should have spared you when they found you lying fainting in the garden. Perhaps the villain was soft ened by the woman's entreaties.
 'I hardly, think that likely. l never a more inexorable face In my llfe "Oh, we shall soon clear up all that" said Bradstreet Well. ! have dra wn my circle, an l only wish I knew at what ! point upon 1t the folk that we are in !