Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1908-08-13

1 almost fancied 1 could hear him painting, and I held my own breath !
to listen. But I could distinguish nothing but the dripping of the mist
about us, and from far off the music of the Hungarian band, which /
had heard when 1 first lost myself.
Cali l could see was the square of light from the door I had left
open behind me, and a lamp in the hall beyond it Pickering in the
draught. But even as | watched it, the fame of the lamp was blown
Violently to and fro, and the door, caught in the same current of air,
closed slowly. | knew fit shut [ could not again enter the house, and
1 rushed mady toward it. l believe | even shouted out, as though it
were something human which I could compel to obey me, and then I
caught my foot against the curb and smashed into the sidewalk. When
l rose to my feet / was dizzy and half stunned, and though I thought
then that [ was moving toward the door, I know now that I probably
turned directly from it: for. as [ groped about in the night. calina
trantcauv for the police, my fingers touched nothing but the dripping
fog, and the iron ratings for which 1 sought seemed to have melted
away. For many minutes l beat the mist with my arms like one at
blind mans buff, turning sharply in circles, cursing aloud at my stu
pdnv and crying continually for help. At last a voice answered me
from the fog, and 1 found myself held in the circle of a poiceman's
lantern.
"That is the end of my adventure. What 1 have to tell you now Is
what l learned from the police.
cat the station-house to which the man guided me I related what
you have lust heard. 1 told them that the house they must at once
find was set back from the street within a radius of two hundred yards
from the Knightsbrdge Barracks, that within fifty yards of it some
one a giving a dance to the music of a Hungarian band, and that
the ratings before it were as high as a mans waist and filed to a point.
With that to work upon, twenty men we're at once ordered out into
the fog to search for the house, and Inspector Lyle himself was dis
patched to the home of Lord Edam, Chetneys father, with a warrant
for Lord Arthurs arrest. [ was thanked and dismissed on my own
recognizance. #."g 81
"Ihs morning Inspector Lyle called on me, and from him [
learned the police theory of the scene 1 have just described. ~
apparently 1 had wandered very far in the fog, for up to noon
to-day the house had not been found, nor had they been able to arrest
Lord Arthur. He did not return to his fathers house last night, and
there is n trace of him; but from what the police knew of the past
lives of the people I found in that lost house, they have evolved a the
DRY, and their theory is that the murders were committed by Lord
Arthur.
"The infatuation of his elder brother, Lord Chetney, fol a Russian
princess, so Inspector Lyle tells me, is we'll known to every one. About
two years ago the Princess Itchy, as she calls herself, and he were con-
stantly together, and Chetney informed his friends that they were
about to be married. The woman was notorious in two continents, and
when Lord Edam heard of his sons infatuation he appealed to the po-
lice for her record. 49,.
ITO Be Continued Next Well