Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-01-26

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 water col. ors of unusual beauty. They occupied . lower shelf, and sprawled on the floor like a boy with new picture book in my absorption, piling 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, I as. sumed. and half crumpled it in my fin gers before I noticed the lines of a pencil sketch on one side of it. car. lried 1t to the table and spread it out
 It was not the bit of idle penciling 1t had appeared to be at first sight. A scale had evidently been followed and the lines drawn with a ruler. With such trifes my grandfather had no doubt amused himself. There was a long corridor indicated, but of this l could make nothing. I studied 1t for several minutes, thinking 1t might have been tentative sketch of some part of the house. In turning 1t about under the candelabrum I saw that h several places the glaze had been rubbed from the paper by an eraser, and this piqued my curiosity. I brought magnifying glass to bear upon the sketch. The drawing had been made with hard pencil and the eraser had removed the lead, but a we'll defined imprint remained.
 l was able to make out the letters, N. W. Y to Ca reference clearly enough to points of the compass and distance. The word ravine was scrawled over a rough outline of a doorway or opening of some sort, and then the phrase:
 FIFE DOOR OF BEWILDERMENT
 Now am rather an imaginative person; that Is why engineering cap. tured my fancy. It was his efforts to make an architect Ca person who quarrels with women about their kitchen sinksD of d boy who wanted to De 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 I was strangely impelled to study 1t seriously.
 l drew for myself rough outlines of the interior of Glenarm House as 1t . had appeared to ne, and then I 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. I 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 strange house. but I had resolved to have look at the ravine opening and determine. if possible. whether it bore any relation to The Door of Be -ilderment"
 All was quiet in the great cellar; only here and there an area window raftled dolorously. carried a 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 I entered in my notebook for further use. and sat down on an empty nail keg to reflect. The place was certainly substantial: inc candle at my feet burned steadily with no hint of a draft; but I saw no solution of my problem. I was losing sleep for nothing: my grandfather's sketch was meaningless. and I rose and picked up my candle. yawning.
 Then a curious thing happened. The candle. whose thin flame had risen un- waveringiy. 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 I knew nothing.
 I faced the stairway that led up to the back hall of the house when. to my astonishment. s6eps sounded be hind me. and. turning. I saw a man carrying a lantern coming toward me I marked his careless step: he vas ondoubtedly on familiar ground As 0afcfpi hF-- r- ----~-- s=---s .ho r---