The Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1903-1909, 1908-03-05
Copyright 1906 by Bobbs-Aerrtii Co.
CHAPTER x.
An Affair With the caretaker.

Ing the howl OF the wind outside with
satisfaction In the warmth and com
fort of the great room. Bates brought
In some sandwiches and a bottle of
ale at midnight
'If there's nothing more, sir"
THAT is all, Bates" And he went
off sedately to his own quarters.
was restless and In no mood for
bed, and mourned the lack of variety
In my grandfather's library. | 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 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 | found sheet
of white note paper no larger than
my hand, forgotten book mark, as
sumed and half crumpled 1t in my fin
gers before | noticed the lines of
pencil sketch on one side of 1t. | car
ried it to the table and spread 1t out.
1t 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 trifles my grandfather had no
doubt amused himself. There was a
long corridor indicated, but of this
could make nothing. | studied 1t for
several minutes, thinking 1t might
have been a tentative sketch of some
part of the house. In turning 1t 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 hard pencil and the
eraser had removed the lead, but
we'll defined imprint remained.
| was able to make out the letters,
N. W. u to Ca reference clearly
enough to points of the compass and
a distance. The word ravine was
scrawed over rough outline of a
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 Ca person who
quarrels with women about their
kitchen sinks!) of a boy who wanted
to be an engineer hat 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 1t seriously.
| drew for myself rough outlines of
the interior of Glenarm House as 1t
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. l went to my room, put
on my corduroy coat, took 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 had resolved
to have look at the ravine opening
and determine. If possible, whether 1t
bore any relation to "The Door of Be
wllderment."
All was quiet In the great cellar;
only here and there an area window
ratified dolorously. | carried a tape
line with me and made measurements
of the length and depth of the CORR.
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 nail key to reflect.
The place was certainly substantial;
the candle at my feet burned steadily
with no hint of draft; but | saw no
solution of my problem. 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 flame had risen UNI
waveingly. sputtered and went out as
a sudden gust swept the corridor.
l had left nothing open behind me.
but some one had gained ingress to
the cellar by an opening of which
knew nothing.
faced the stairway that led up to
the back hall of the house when, to
my establishment. steps sounded be-
hind me, and, turning. saw a man
carrying d lantern coming toward me
| marked his careless step; he was
undoubtedly on familiar ground. As
watched him he paused lifted the Ian
tern to a level with his eyes and be-
gan sounding the outer corridor wall
with hammer
Here, undoubtedly was my friend
Morgan-again! There was the same
periodicity In the beat ON the wall
that ] had heard in my own rooms.
He began az the top and went method