Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-07-29
CHAPTER II,-Continned.,

u.
corridor ran the length OF the house,
with rooms opening from both sides.
In the wings were small corridors
crossing the main one--the plan was
simplicity itself. And just as ! got
back into bed, heard a sound from
the east wing. apparently, that made
me stop, frozen, with one bedroom
slipper half off, and listen. tt was a
rafting metallic sound, and it reYer-
berated along the empty halH like the
crash of doom. 1t was for all the
world as If something heavy, perhaps
81 niece of steel. had rolled Gathering
and dangling down the hardwood
stairs leading to the cardroom.
In the silence that followed Liddy
stirred and snored again. was ex-
asperated: first she KEPT me awake
by silly alarms, then when she was
needed she slept like Joe Jefferson.
or Rip,-they are always the same 10
me. went in and aroused her, and
7 give her credit for being wide awake
the minute ! spoke.
Get up" / said, IF you don't want
to be murdered in your bed.
NWhere? How" she yelled vocifeF-
ously. and jumped up, ;.
'.Theres somebody in the house.
said. "Get up. Well have to get
to the telephone
met out in the hall" she gasped,
~Ob. Miss Rachel, not out in the hall! !"
irving to hold me back. But. | am G.
large woman and Liddy is small. We
got to the door, somehow, and Liddy
held a brass andiron, which it was
10 OF
ANYBODY with | listened, and. hear
ing nothing, opened the door a lite
and peered into the hall. 1t was a
black void, full of terrible suggestion,
and my candle only emphasized the
gloom. Liddy squealed and drew me
back again, and as the door slammed
the mirror ! had put on the transonl
came down and hit her on the head
That completed our decentralization.
1t was sometime before | could per-
suade her she had not been attacked
from behind by burglar, and when
she found the mirror smashed on the
floor, she wasn't much better
There's going to be DEATH she
walled. "Oh, Miss Rachel, there's
going to be death"
There will be- I said grimly, If
you don't keep quiet, Liddy Allen
And so we sat there until morning,
wondering if the candle would last
until dawn. and arranging what trains
we could take back to town. If we
had only stuck to that decision AMI
gone back before it was too late!
The sun came finally. and from my
window I watched the trees along
the drive take shadowy form. grad
ualIy lose their ghostlike appearance.
become gray and then green. The
Greenwood club showed itself a dab
of white against the hill across the
valley, and an early robin or two
hoped around in the dew. Not until
the milk-boy and the sun came, about
the same time, did | dare to open the
door into the hall and look around
Everything was as we had left it
Trunks were heaped here and there,
ready for the trunk room, and through
an end window of stained glass came
streak of red and yellow daylight
that was en1inently cheerful. The
milk-boy was pounding somewhere be.
low. and the day had begun.
Thomas Johnson came ambling up
the drive about half-past six, and We
could hear him Gathering around Oh
the lower floor, opening shutters.
had to take Liddy to her room up
stairs, howeyer.-she was quite sure
she would find something uncanny.
. In fact, when she did not, having now
the courage of daylight, she was ac-
tually disappointed.
Well, we did not go back to town
that day.
The discovery of a small picture
fallen from the wall of the drawing
room was quite sufficient to satisfy
Liddy that the alarm had been false
one, but was anything but convinced.
Allowing for my nerves and the fact
that small noises magnify themselves
at night, there was still no possibility
that the picture had made the series
of sounds / heard. To prove it, how.
ever, dropped it again It fell with
a single muffIed crash of its wooden
frame, and incidentally ruined Itself
beyond repair. I justified myself by
rejecting that if the Armstrong; chose
to leave pictures in unsafe positions
and to rent house with a family
ghost, the destruction of property was
their responsibility, not nine
/ warned Iiddy not to mention
what had happened to anybody. and
teIephoned to town for servants. Then
after breakfast which did more cred
It to Thomas heart than his head.
went on short tour Of investigation
The sounds had come from the cas-
wing. end not without some dualms
began there. AT first found nothing
Since then I have developed my pow
ers of observation, but at that time
was novice. The small card-roon
seemed undisturbed. I looked fol
footprints, which is believe, the con
yentional thing to do. although m,
experience has been that as clue:
both footprints and thumb-marks ar,
more useful in fiction than in fact
But the stairs in that wing Offered
something.
At the top of the fight had bee,
placed tall wicker hamper, packci
with linen that had come from town
1t stood at the edge of the top step
almost barring passage, and on tn
step below 1t was a long fresh scratch
For three steps the scratch was re
heated gradually diminishing, as