The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-10-13

| away nOiSeleSSly. ..
 Grimbleshaw stepped hastily out on
 to the doorstep, but the pelting of the
 sleet, which threatened again to put
 out his light, showed him the folly of | attempting pursuit, and he stepped
 back, shut the door and turned the
 key.
 | The entryway was not more than
 eight feet square. Three doors open l ed into it and a winding stairway ran 1 upward Opposite the door by which
 he had come was the approach to a
 room on the other side of the house.
 A turn of the knob proved the door
 to be locked.
 | t'Humph," he muttered: ''they lock
 the inner doors, but leave the outside
 ones unlocked We'll try upstairs" | He went up slowly. and as he did so
 caught an occasional gleam of the | light in little drops and splashes that
 he knew to be of blood. Naturally he l connected the blood with the call over
 the telephone, and it was clear that | whoever had been hurt had been car | ried up these stairs. Still, the amount | of blood in the room below perplexed
 him. He directed Phil sharply to hold | the light above his head. for he wish= | ed to prevent his discovery of the
 blood before the cause could be made ! clear.
 | At the head of the stairs and direct
 ly over the locked one below was a | door. On this he gave a rap and
 then turned the knob. It, too, was
 locked. He listened, and was convinc- | ed that he heard stealthy step with
 in, as if some one were stealing away
 from the door. Then he rapped again,
 louder than before, but equally with
 out effect.
 | At that he turned and went along the hall, past a window above the | front door, to the door of the room above that in which he had seen the blood. This was slightly open, and he
 pushed it back with his foot, holding his candle above his head to throw the light as far possible within. | He saw a great chamber, cavernous
 and dark, save as his light penetrated | it. At the farther side was a huge high-posted bedstead, on the white | counterpane of which he fancied he saw a dark outline that suggested the form of a man. He leaned forward | to get a better sight when Phil gave shriek dropped his candle, which
 was extinguished by the fall, and turn | ed and fled down the stairs. Before Grimbleshaw could rally from the start the shriek gave him, something l or someone darted past him, knock | ing his candle, in turn, to the floor, | and followed the boy with almost
 noiseless steps. It seemed to Grim
 bleshaw, listening in the dark, that he
 heard the swish of drapery as the flee | ing figure passed the turn in the stairs,
 but even then he admitted the trick
 that imagination might, under the cir
 cumstances, play him.
 The boy clearly kept on through the
 room below. but Grimbleshaw could
 hear the unknown fumbling at the
 knob of the, front door. This recalled | him to himself, and he sprang to the | stairs under an impulse to seize the | fugitive. Even as he felt his foot on 1 the first step he realized the supreme | folly of such an act. On this he re-
 traced his steps. moving instinctively | on tiptoe, and found his candlestickl
 and also Phil's. In groping for them
 his hand touched two or three wet,
 sticky spots, which he knew to be l blood.
 ] Then he suddenly remembered that | Phil had not given him the matches, | and he had no means of gaining a l light short of the kitchen. The noise | below had ceased. but whether be-
 cause the fugitive had unlocked the l door and escaped, or because he was | lying in wait for him to come down he had no means of finding out much
 of the event. The question opened up | most unpleasant possibilities | IN THE UPPER CHAMBER. | Although the awkwardIieSs of tho