The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1910-08-26

near Ter door ia the gallery where this
| Incredible phenomenon had taken
place. There are moments when one
feels as If ones brain were about TO
burst a bullet IN the head. fracture
of the skull. tie seat Of reason shat
tered-with only these can | compare
the sensation which exhausted and left
me void of sense
Happily Mile. Stangerson appeared
on the threshold of her anteroom.
saw her. and that helped to relieve my
chaotic state of mind / breathed her:
/ inhaled the perfume of the lady in
black who Lad been kind to me In
my childhood whom I should never
see again would have given ten
years of my life-half my life-to see
once more the lady in black. Alas,
no more meet her but from time to
time, and yet and yet, how the men,
DRY of that perfume, felt by me alone,
carries me back to the days of my
childhood. 1t was this sharp reminder
from my beloved perfume of the lady
in black which made me go to her.
dressed wholly in white and so pale. so
pale and so beautiful, on the threshold
Of the inexplicable gallery. Her beau
tiful golden hair, gathered into knot
on the back of her neck, left visible the
red scar on her temple which had so
nearly been the cause of her death.
When | first got on the right track
of the mystery of this case i had
imagined that on the night Of the trag
edy in the yellow room Mile. Stanger-
son had worn her hair in bands. But.
then, how could / have imagined other
wise when 1 had not been in the vel
low room?
But now. since the occurrence OF
the inexplicable gallery did not rea-
son at all. | stood there, stupid before
the apparition-so pale and so beauti- !
ful-of Mile. Stangerson. She was clad |
In dressing gown of dreamy white. |
One might have taken her to be ,
ghost-a lovely phantom. Her father
took her in his arms and kissed her
as If he had recovered i
her after being long lost to him. !
into the room, and we followed them
FOR we had to know! The door of the
Ooudoir was open. The terrified faces
If the two nurses craned toward us.
Nile. Stangerson inquired the meaning
" all the disturbance. That she was
lot in her own room was quite easily
.xplained-quite easily. She had
ancy not to sleep that night in her
,hamber, but in the boudoir with her
nurses. locking the door on them. Since
he night of the crime she had expert !
need feelings OF terror, and fears came
ended.
But who could imagine that on that
articular night when be was to come
he would by a mere chance determine :
0 shut herself in with her women? !,
Who would think that she would act t
ontrary to her fathers wish to sleep S
! the drawing room? Who could be- &c
eve that the letter which had SO re- I
emily been ON the table in her room
Tould no longer be there? He who 4
1uld understand all this would have
} assume that Mile. Stangerson knew
lat the murderer was coming-she
)uld not prevent his coming again
1known to her father. unknown to all
1T to NJ. Robert DarZac. For he must
low it now. Perhaps he had known y
before! Did he remember that
lrase in the Elysee garden, Must
mmit a crime. then. to win your
gainst whom the crime If not against
e obstacle, against the murderer?
h, would kill him with my own :,
nd! And | replied, You have not 81
severed my question That was the Ga
ry truth. In truth. in truth. NJ. Oar W
C knew the murderer so well that, &C
nile wishing to kill him himself, he Co
rs afraid | should find him. There !,
uld be but two reasons why he had
sisted me in my investigation. First,
cause have forced him to do it, br
d, second. because she would be the tn
tier protected pu
I am in the chamber-her room. I id
K at her. also at the place where the
sed herself of 1t; 1t was evidently
ended for evidently How she
mbles! Trembles at the strange
ry her father is telling her. of the pr
sence Of the murderer in her cham ie
and of the pursuit. But 1t is plain
to be seen that she is not wholly
lsfied by the assurance given her
Il she had been told that the
rderer by some ineomprehensibie
ans had been able to elude us.
Then followed silence. What a
nee! We are all there-looking at
her father Larsan. Daddy Jacques AZ,
I. What were we all thinking of WI
the silence? After the events OF
night. Of the mystery of the mex
able gallery. of the prodigious fact
he presence of the murderer in her q
n. II seemed to me that all our
tights might have been translated i'o'
the words which were addressed MAJ
Ter. You who know OF this mys- and
pxplo I'm II TO us and We shall nor. II