The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1907-06-08
CHAPTER 4,
An Affair With the caretsker.


fort of the great room. Bates brought
ale at midnight.
If there's nothing more. sir"
That is all, Bates" And he went
of sedately to his own quarters.
! was restless and in no mood for
bed, and mourned the lack of variety
In my grandfather's library I moved
about from shelf to shelf, taking down
one book after another, and while thus
engaged came upon series OF large
volumes extra illustrated in wafer col
ors of unusual beauty. They occupied
a lower shelf and | sprawled on the
floor like a boy with new picture
book in my absorption. pilng the
great volumes about me They were
on related subjects pertaining to the
French chateauX.
In the last volume l found sheet
of white note paper no larger than
my hand. forgotten book mark, | as
sumed. and half crumpled it in my fin
gers before | noticed the lines of a
pencil sketch on one side of it. | car
ried it to the table and spread it out
il had appeared to be at first sight A
scale had evidently been followed and
the lines drawn with ruler. With
such trifles my grandfather had p0
doubt amused himself There was
long corridor indicated, but of this
could make nothing. | studied it for
severaf minutes. thinking it might
have been tentative sketch of some
part of the house. In turning it about
under the candelabrum | saw that In
several places the glaze had been
rubbed from the paper by an eraser,
and this piqued my curiosity. |
brought magnifying glass to bear
upon the sketch The drawing had
been made with a hard pencil and the
eraser had removed the lead, but a
well defined imprint remained.
| was able to make out the letters,
N. w. q to Ca reference clearly
enough to points of the compass and
a distance. The word ravine was
scrawled over rough outline of
doorway or opening of some sort, and
then the phrase:
THE DOOR OF BEWILDERMENT
Now ! am rather an imaginative
person; that is why engineering cap
tured my fancy. 1t was his efforts
to make an architect "a person who
quarrels with women about their
kitchen sinks.J of d boy who wanted
to be an engineer that caused me to
break with my grandfather. Fate was
busy with my affairs that night. for,
instead of lighting my pipe with the
little sketch | was strangely impelled
to study it seriously.
l drew for myself rough outlines of
the interior of Glenarm House as it
had appeared to me. and then | tried
to reconcile the little sketch with ev
cry part of it.
The Door of Bewilderment" was
the charm that held me. My curiosity
was thoroughly aroused as to the hid
den corners of the queer old house,
round which the wind shrieked tor
mentingly. | went to my room, put
on my corduroy coat, took a candle
and went below. One O'Clock in the
morning is not the most cheering
hour for exploring the dark .recesses
of a strange house, but had resolved
to have look at the ravine opening
d determine, if possible, whether it
bore any relation to The Door of Be-
wilderment"
All was quiet in the great cellar;
only here and there an area window
ratified dolorously. l carried tape.
line with me and made measurements
of the length and depth of the corri-
dor and of the chambers that were set
OFF from it. These figures | entered in
my notebook for further use, and sat
down on an empty nal keg to reflect.
The place was certainly substantial;
the candle at my feet burned steadily
with no hint of draft; but I saw no
solution of my problem I was losing
sleep for nothing; my grandfather's
sketch was meaningless, and | rose
and picked up my candle, yawning.
Then curious thing happened. The
candle, whose thin fame had risen un-
waveringly, sputtered and went out as
sudden gust swept the corridor.
had left nothing open behind me,
but some one had gained ingress to
the cellar by an opening of which l
knew nothing
l faced the stairway that led up to
the back hall of the house when, to
my astonishment, steps sounded be-
hind me, and, turning, saw q man
carrying a lantern coming toward me.
marked his careless step; he was
undoubtedly on familiar ground. AS
watched him he paused, lifted the lam
tern to a level with his eyes and be-
gan sounding the outer corridor wall
with a hammer.
Alere. undoubtedly, was nv friend
Nfgan-again. There was the same
perfodicity in the beat on the wall
that l had heard in my own rooms.