Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1909-10-23
XzLlyzRAz7ONS.BY
ny Mze<

through the halls, and certain high
notes Of excited voices penetrated to
ne shrilly. hoped they were coming
closer, but after a time the sounds
lied away below, and / was left to the
silence and heat, to the weight of the
darkness, to the oppression of walls
hat seemed to close in on me and
;tifie me.
The first warning had was a
stealthy fumbling at the lock of the
With my mouth open
20 scream. stopped. Perhaps the sit
uation had rendered me acute, per-
haps it was instructive. Whatever it
was, sat without moving, and some
one outside. in absolute stiffness, ran
his fingers over the carving of the
mattel and-found the panel.
Now the sounds below redoubled;
from the clatter and Earring l knew
hat several people were running up
he stairs, and as the sounds ap-
,roached, I could even hear what they
said.
Watch the end stafrcases" jamie
on shouted. "Damnation-there's no
ight here!" And then second later.
All together now. One - two =
hree-"
The door into the trunkroom had
been locked from the inside. At the
;econd that it gave, opening against
he wall with crash and evidently
nrlbling somebody into the room, the
'tealthy 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
YVES not alone il the chimney room
There was some one else in the dark
ness, some one who breathed hard
and who was so close I could have
touched him with my hand.
was in paralysis of terror. Out
side there we're excited voices and in
credulous oaths. The trunks were
being jerked around in frantic
search, the windows were thrown
open, only to show a sheer drop of &c
feet. And the man in the room with
me leaned against the mantel-door
and listened. His pursuers We're plain
ly bafTled; | heard him draw long
breath, and turn to grope his way
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 tbs
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, l screamed, ear-splittingly
madly, and they heard me outside
"ln the chimney" / shrieked. BE
hind the mantel! The mante!"
With an oath the figure hurled itsel
across the room at me, and
screamed again. In his blind fury he
had missed me; ! heard him strike
the wall. That one time I eludeG
him; was across the room, and ha(
got the chair. He stood for second
listening, then-he made another rusf
and struck out with my weapon.
think 1t stunned him, for I had sec
ond's respite when I 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 hat
changed his tactics. knew he wa.
creeping on me, inch by inch, and
could not tell from where. And the1
he caught me. He held his hant
over my mouth, and / bit him. | was
helpless, strangling-and some on
was trying to break in the mantle
from outside. 1t began to yield some
where, for a thin wedge of yellowisl
light was reflected on the opposit,
wall. When he saw that, my assailan
dropped me with curse; then-th,
opposite wall swung open noiselessly
closed again without a sound, and
was alone. The intruder was gone.
In the next room" I called wildly
"The next room!" But the sound o
blows on the mantel drowned m,
voice. BY the time had made then
understand. couple Of minutes ha,
elapsed. The pursuit was taken vi
then, by all except Alex, who was de
termined to liberate me. When
stepped out into the trunkroom fire.,
woman again I could hear the chas,
far below.
must say, for all Alexis anxiety t,
set me free, he paid little enough at
IGNITION to my plight. He jumpe,
through the opening into the. secre
room and picked up the portable safe
II am going to put this in Mr.. Hal
sey's room, Miss Innes," he said, "an'
I shall send one of the detectives t,
guard it."
I hardly heard him. I wanted Il
laugh and cry in the same breath
to crawl into bed and have cup o
tea, and scold Liddy, and do any o
the thousand natural things that hal
never expected to do again. And tn
air! The touch Of the cool night al
ON my face!
As Alex and reached the secon'
floor. Mr.. Jameson met us. He wa
grave and quiet. and he nodded com
prehendingly when he saw the safe.
"Will you come with me for me
ment, Miss Innes?" he asked soberls
and on my asserting, he led the wa
to the east wing. There were light
moving around below. and some o