The newspaper., 1910-02-25

49,
1t must have been several hours,
for had been tired from a busy day,
and l walked stiff from my awkward
position. could. not remember
where / was for a few minutes, and
my head felt heavy and congested.
Gradually | reused to my surround
ings. and to the fact that in spite of
ventilators. the air was bad and grow
ing worse. / was breathing long,
gasping respirations. and my face was
damp and clammy. I must have been
there a long time, and the searchers
were probably hunting outside the
house. dredging the creek. or beating
the woodland. knew that another
hour CT two would find me uncon-
scious. and with my inability to cry
out would go my only chance of res
cue. It was the combination of bad air
and heat. probably. for some inade-
quate ventilation was coming through
the pipes. | tried to retain my con-
seriousness by walking the length of
the room and back, over and over, but
l had not the strength to keep it up.
so I sat down on the table again, my
Dach against the wall.
The house was very still. Once my
ears seemed to catch foot
falf beneath me, possibly in my own
room. 1 CROPPED for the chair from
the table, and pounded with it frantic
ally on the floor. But nothing hap
pened; I realized bitterly that if the
sound was heard at all. no doubt 1t
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 a
peculiar throbbing. vibrating noise
that l felt rather than heard, much
Ike the pulsing beat of fire engines in
the city. For one awful moment I
thought the house was on fire. and
every drop of blood in my body gath
cred around my heart; then knew. It
was the engine of the automobile. and
Halsey had come back. Hope sprang
up afresh. Halsey's clear head and
Gertrude's intuition might do what
Liddy's hysteria and three detectives
had failed in.
After a time / thought I had been
right There was certainly something
eOAAe Ol oONh pctOWs A0K0
slamming, people were hurrying
through the halls. and certain high
notes of excited voices penetrated to
me shrilly. / 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 had was q
stealthy fumbling at the lock Of the
mantel-door. With my mouth open
to scream. / stopped. Perhaps the sit
uation had rendered me acute. perl
haps 1t was instructive Whatever Il |
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. could even hear what they
said
Watch the end staircases," jamie
son shouted. "Damnation-there's nd
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, opening against
the wall with a crash and evidently
somebody into the room. the
stealthy fingers beyond the n,antel
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 ID
her ears at this point-only now
was not alone in the chimney room
There was some one else in the dark
ness, some one who breathed hard
and who was so close | could hav
touched him with my hand
! was in a paralysis of terror. Out
side there were excited voices and ID
credulous oaths. The trunks wer,
being jerked around in = frantiI
search. the windows were throw,
open. only to show q sheer drop Of
feet. And the man In the room witt
me leaned against the mantel-doo
and listened. His pursuers were plais
ly bafied: l heard him draw . Ion
breath. and turn to grope his va
through the blackness. Them
my hand. cold. clammy. dealt
like.
A hand in an empty roomi He DIRE