The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-02-04
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Sir you heap Goals of fire on me- /"
/ Believe me that for ninety-nine of
your qualities 1 do not care a tinker
curse; but as man who, after three
tumblers of neat brandy, can tell Mar
sala from Madeira you are to be taken
care Of
He shuffled away, but came back in
a couple Of minutes with the night
shirt.
Good nightI' he called to me, fling
ing 1T in at the door; and without CIV
ing me time to return the wish went
his way up stairs.
Now, it might be supposed that I was
only too glad to toss off my clothes and
climb into the bed 1 had so unexpect-
edly acquired a right to. But as a
matter of fact, I did nothing of the
kind. Instead, 1 drew on my boots
and sat on the beds edge, blinking at
my candle till it died down in its sock
ct, and afterward at the purple square
OF window as it slowly changed to gray
with the coming dawn. I was cold to
the heart and my teeth chartered with
an ague. Certainly I never suspected
my hosts word; but was even occupied
IN framing good resolutions and Shap-
ing out an excellent future, when l
heard the front door gently pulled to,
and a mans footsteps moving quietly
to the gate.
The treacherJ knocked me in a heap
for the moment. Then Ieaping UP and
Ringing my door wide l stumbled
through the uncertain light of the pas
sage into the front hall.
There was q fan-shaped light over
the door and the place was very still
and gray. A quick thought, or, rather,
sudden prophetic guess at the truth,
made me turn to the figure of the mas
tiff curled under the hall table.
L laid my hand on the scruff of his
neck. He was quite limp, and my fin
gers sank into the flesh on either side
of the vertebrae. Digging them deep
er, / dragged him out into the middle
of the hall and pulled the front door
open to see the better.
His throat was gashed from ear to
ear
How many seconds passed after 1
dropped the senseless lump on the floor
and before / made another movement
1t would puzzle me 10 say. Twice
stIrred a foot, as if to run out al the
door. Then, changing my mind,
stepped over the mastiff and ran up
the staircase. The light no longer shone
out into the lefthand passage; but
cropping down it, I found the study
door open, as before. and passed in. a
sick light stole through the blinds
enough for me to distinguish the
glasses and decanters on the table and
find my way to the curtain that hung
before the room where the light had
first attracted me.
l pushed the curtain aside, paused for
a moment and listened to the violent
beat Of my heart, then felt for the door
handle and turned it.
All I could see at first was that the
chamber was small; next. that the light
patch in a line with the window was
the white coverlet of a bed, and, next.
that somebody or something lay on the
bed
listened again. There was no sound
In the room; no heart beating but my
own. l reached out a hand to pull up
the blind and drew it back again l
dared not.
Inc daynSht grew minute by minute,
on the dull paTallelOgram of the blind.
and minute by minute that horrible
thing on the bed took something of dis
tinctness. The strain beat me at last.
L fetched a veritable yell to give my
self courage, and, reaching for the cord,