Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1909-03-04

fright" gallery I saw a figure 1euvrry
her apartment. which in few strides
had reached the landing place.
was not master Of myself. fred.
The report from the revolver made a
deafening noise. but the man continued
his flight down the stairs. / ran be.
hind him, shouting: stop! Stop, or
will kill you! AS rushed after him
down the stairs l came face to face
with Arthur Rance coming from the
left wing Of the chateau, yelling:
what is It? What is it?" We ar.
rived almost at the same time ut the
foot Of the staircase. The window Of
the vestibule was open. We distinctly
saw the form Of a man running away
Instinctively we fred our revolvers in
his direction. He was not more than
ten pnccs in front Of us. He stag.
gered. and we thought he was going to
fall. We had sprung out Of the win.
dow, but the man dashed of with re.
newed vigor. I was In my socks. and
the American was barefooted. There
being no hope of overtaking him, we
fired our last cartridges at him. Bat
! he still kept on running. going along
the right side Of the court toward the
end of the right wing Of the chateau,
which had no other outlet than the
door Of the little chamber occupied by
the forest keeper
The man, though he was evidently
wounded by orr bullets. was now
twenty yards ahead of u.s. Suddenly,
| behind us, and above our heads. n win
dow in the gallery opened and we
heard the voice Of Rouletabille crying
out desperately:
Fire. Bcrnier. Fire.
At that moment the cleaf moonlight
night was further lit by broad fash.
BY its light we saw Daddy Bcrnier
with his gun on the threshold Of the
donjon door.
He had taken good aim. The shadow
fell. But as It had reached the end OF
the right wing Of the chateau. 1t fell
on the other side Of the angle of the
buldng-that is to say. we saw it
about to fall. but not the actual sink
ing to the ground. Bernier. Arthur
Rance and myself reached the other
side twenty seconds later. The shadow
was lying dead at our feet.
Aroused from his lethargy by the
cries md reports. Larsan opened tho
window of his chamber and called out
to us Rouletabllle. quite awake now
Joined us NJ the same moment, and
cried out to him:
"IIc is dend-is dcad!"
$50 much the better" he said. Take
him into the vestibule of thu chateau
Then as II on second thought he said
"No-no. Let'us put him in his owr
room"
Rouletabille knocked Mt the door
Nobody answered. Naturally. this die
not surprise me.
He is evidently not there. otherwise
he would have come out" said the Re
porter. LET us carry him to the YES
tibule then"
Since reaching the dead shadow,
thick cloud had covered the moon AM
darkened the night, so that we wer
unable to make out the features. Dad
dy Jacques, who had now joined us
ucIptu us W ihc p'us AhtO III
vestibule. where we laid it down OF
the lower step of the stairs. On tn
way, I had felt my hands wet from
the warm blood flowing from tn
wounds.
!. Daddy Jacques flew tc the kitche
and returned with lantern. He he'll
II close to the face of the dead shad
|. 4 Z, I,N \,
| man called by the landlord of tn
Donjon inn the Green Man. whom a
, hour earlier l had seen come out c
? Arthur RANGES chamber carrying
q parcel. But what l had seen l coul
. only tell Rouletabille later when W
8 were alone.
, Rouletabille and Frederic Larsan e!
t perienced cruel disappointment at I'll
: result of the nights adventure The
G could only look in CONSERVATION an
e stupefaction at the body Of the Gree
!, Man.
o Daddy Jacques showed n stupid
solrowful face and with silly lament;
o tons kept repeating that we were mi
y takcn-the keeper could not be the n
= sailant. We we're obliged to comp
! him to he gligt We could not hay
r shown greater E:''c had the body bee
that Of his own son. ] noticed, viii
all the rest Of US were more or less III
dressed and barefootcd, that he VIZ
fully clothed.
Rouletabilie had not left the bod
| Kneeling on the flagstones by the lgl
of Daddy Jacques lantern. he remove
the clothes from the body and lai
bare its breast Then, snatching IL
y lantern from Daddy Jacques, he he
-. it over the corpse and saw Il GapiI
wound. Rising suddenly, he eXclaimC
=. in a voice filed with savage irony:
=, 1.-THE man you believe to have bee
'. shot was killed by the stab OF kni
=, In his heart"
n thought Rouletabille had gone ma
70 tut, bending over the body, quick
;, satisfied myself that Rouletabille WI
y right. Not sign Of bullet anywhcr
:, The wound evidently made by q sha
q. hlohn had penetrated the heart,