The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-09-29

the room and back, over and over, but
i had not the strength to keep it up,
so l sat down on the table again, my
back against the wall.
The house was very still. Once my
straining ears seemed to catch foot
fall beneath me, possibly in my own
room. ] CROPPED for the chair from
the table, and pounded with it frantic
ally on the floor But nothing hap
pened; realized bitterly that if the
sound was heard at ALL no doubt it
was classed with the other rappings
that had SO alarmed us recently.
And then-I heard sounds from be-
low me, in the house. There was
peculiar threbbing, vibrating noise
that | felt rG.her than seard, much
like the rulsing beat of fire engines in
the city. For one awful moment
thought the house was on fire, and
every drop of blood in ny body gath
cred around my heart; then knew 1t
was the engine of the automobile, and
Halsey had come back. Hope sprang
up afresh. Halsey's clear head and
Gertrudes intuition might do what
Liddy's hysteria and three detectives
had failed in.
After a time I thought I had been
right. There was certainly something
going on down below; doors were
slamming, people were hurrying
through the halls, and certain high
notes of excited voices penetrated to
me shrilly. l hoped they were coming
closer, but after a time the sounds
died away below, and was left to the
silence and heat, to the weight Of the
darkness, to the oppression of walls
that seemed to close in on me and
stife me.
The first warning I had was a
stealthy fumbling at the lock of the
mantel-door. With my mouth open
to scream, stopped. Perhaps the sit
uation had rendered me acute per-
haps 1t was instructive. Whatever it
was, sat without moving, and some
one outside, in absolute stiffness, ran
his fingers over the carving of the
mantel and-found the panel
Now the sounds below redoubled;
from the clatter and jarring | knew
that several people were running up
the stairs, and as the sounds ap-
preached, I could even hear what they
said
Watch the end staircases." Jamie
son shouted. "Damnation-theres no
| light here!" And then a second later.
! All together now. One - two -
three
The door into the trunkroom had
been locked from the inside At the
! second that it gave, o1ening against
the wall with a crash and evidently
tumbling somebody into the room. the
stealthy fingers beyond the mantel-
door gave the knob the proper i'm.
petus. and-the door swung open, and
closed again. Only-and Liddy al
ways screams and puts her fingers in
her ears at this point-only now
was not alone in the chimney room
There was some one ESQ IN TIE dark
ness, some one Who breathel hard
and who was so c.o-e could have
touched him with my hand.
l was in paralysis of terror. Out
side there were excited voices and in
credulous oaths. The trunks were
being jerked around in frantic
search, the windows were thrown
open, only to show sheer drop of AZ
feet. And the man in the room with
me leaned against the mantel-door
and listened. His pursuers were plain
ly baffied; l heard him draw a lone
breath, and turn to grope his way
through the blackness. Then-he
touched my hand, cold, clammy, death
like.
A hand in an empty room! He drew
in his breath the sharp intaking o.
horror that fills lungs suddenly col
lapsed. Beyond jerking his hand away
instantly, he made no movement
think absolute terror had him by the
throat. Then he stepped back, with
out turning, retreating foot by foo
from The Dread in the corner, and
do not think he breathed
Then, with the relief of space be
tween US, | screamed, ear-splittingly
madly, and they heard me outside.
I'm the chimney" | shrieked. BE
hind the mantel! The mantel!"
With an oath the figure hurled itsel
across the room at me, and
screamed again. In his blind fury hs
had missed me; | heard him strike
the wall. That one time l eludet
him; was across the room, and hat
got the chair He stood for a second
listening, then-he made another rusl
and l struck out with my weapon.
think it stunned him, for | had a sec
ond's respite when | could hear hin
breathing, and some one shouted out
side:
"We-can't-get-in. How-does-i
open?"
But the man in the room ha,
changed his tactics ! knew he wa
creeping on me. inch by inch, and
could not tell from where, And the
he caught me. He held his ham
over my mouth, and ! bit him. l wa
helpless, strangling- some on
was trying to break in the mante
from outside. 1t began to yield some
where, for thin wedge of yellowis
light was reflected on the opposit
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