The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-06-02
CONTINUED From Yesterday

CONTINUED From Yesterday
The next day two p~ale-looking men,
in artisan costume, came up to the gate
at the same time as 1 did, each carry
ing a long wooden box Under his arm,
strongly bound with iron. 1 tried to
make them talk while We were waiting
for admission, but neither of them would
go beyond yes or NO" and both
had, to my eyes, some Enthusiastically
sinister lines in their faces. The next
day the housekeeping cook came to the
door-a buxom old woman with a bold
look and a ready smile, and something
in her manner, which suggested that she
had not begun life quite SO respectfully
as she was now ending it. She seemed
to be decidedly satisfied with my per-
sonal appearances; talked to me on in
different matters with great %glibness;
but suddenly became silent n diplo-
matte the momen I looked toward the
stairs and asked innocently if she had
course of the day.
AS for the doctor himself he was un-
approachable on the subject of the
mysterious upper regions. II 1 intro
duced chemistry in general into the con-
= stANAOAA Alo bIES1a IN " " 0DOAt HIS
happy holiday hours with his daughter
and me, by leading him back to his
workaday thoughts. If 1 referred to
his own experiments in particular he
always made a joke about being afraid
of my chemical knowledge, and of my
wishing to anticipate him in his discov-
cries. In brief. after a weeks run Of
the lower regions, the upper part of
the red-brick house and the actual ma
ture of its owners occupations still re-
manned impenetrable mysteries to me,
pry, ponder and question as / might.
Thinking of this on the river bank, in
connection with the distressing scene
which I had just had with Alicia, L
found that the mysterious obstacle at
which she had limited, the mysterious
life led by her father, and the mystic
rious top of the house that had hitherto
defied my curiosity, all three connected
themselves in my mind as links of the
same chain. The obstacle to my marry
ing Alicia was the thing that most
troubled me. If I only found out what
it was, n if 1 made light of it (Which
L was resolved beforehand to do, let it
be what it might, 1 should most prob
ably end by overcoming her ~scruples,
and taking her away from the ominous
red-briclS house in the character of my
wife. But how was l to make the all
important discovery?
Cudgeling my brains for an answer
to this question, l fell at last into rea-
soning upon it, by a process of natural
logic, something after this fashion:
The mysterious top of the house is con-
nected with the doctor, and the doctor
is connected with the obstacle which
has mad w-retchedness between Alicia
n me. If l can only get to the top
of the house, l may get also to the
root of the obstacle. 1t is a dangerous
and an uncertain experiment; but.
come what may of it, / win try and
find out, if human ingenuity car COM
pass the means, what DIR. Dulcifer's
occupation really is, on the other side
of that iron door.
Having come to this resolution land
deriving. let me add, parenthetically,
great consolation from it,, the next
subject of consideration was the best
method of getting safely into the top
regions Of the house.
Picking the lock oe the iron door
was out of the question, from the ex-
posed nature of the situation which
that mysterious iron barrier occupied.
My only possible way to the second
floor lay by the back of the house. l
had looked up at it two or three times,
while walking in the garden after din
ner with Alicia. What a 1 brought
away III my memory as the result of
that casual inspection of my hosts
back premises? Several fragments of
useful information.
In the first place, one of the most
paa .asGaAAF rrs~Aa I,l --1,t
grew against the back wall of the
house, trained carefully on a strong
trelhs-work. In the second place, the
middle first floor back window looked
out on a little stone balcony, built on
the top of the porch over the garden
door. In the third place, the back win
dows Of the second floor had been open
on each occasion when I had seen them
mos probably to air the house, which
could not be ventilated from the front
during the hot summer weather, in
consequence of the shut-up condition
of all the windows Whereabouts. In
the fourth place, hard by the coach
house in which DR.. Dulcifer's neat gig
was put up, there was a tool-shed, in
which the gardener kept his short
pruning ladder. In the fifth and last
place, outside the stable in which DR..
Dulcifer's blood mare lived in lux
urious solitude, was a dog-kennel with
a large mastiff chained to it night and
day. If could only rid myself of the
dog-a gaunt, half-starved brute, made
ard NANCY by perpetual con-
inement-I did not see any reason
to despair of getting in undiscovered
at n of the second-foor windows
provided I waited until a sufficiently
late hour, and succeeded in scaling the
garden wall at the back of the house.
Life without Alicia being not worth
having, l determined to risk the thing
very night. l.