Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1911-06-23

AAANhCys
explainin' how a crook like
Anisty made three tries in one day
TO steal some jewels and didn't get
'em. Where were they. all this time ?'
Maitland's 3 cool retort was lost upon
her. What matter? If they disbe-
lieved him. persisted in calling him
Anisty, in natural course they would
undertake to search the fiat. And IL
she were found. Oh, she must
spare him that! She had given him
cause for suffering enough. She must
get away, and that instantly, before
From a distance, tomorrow
morning-to-night, evenly telegraph,
she could communicate with him.
At this juncture O'Hagan entered
with his parcel. The rustic of the
paper as he brushed against the door
1amb was in itself a hint to a mind
keyed to the highest pitch of excite
ment and seeking way OF escape
from position conceived to be peril
GUS. In trice the girl had turned
o-Aa SPCN, lut ODe0-
ing on the private hall
Here, halting for a brief reconnais-
sance, she determined that her plan
was feasible, IL hazardous. She ran
the risk of encountering some one
ascending the stairs from the ground
floor; but If she were cautious and
| quick she could turn back in time. On
the other hand, the men whom she
most feared were thoroughly occupied
Win their differences, dead to al save
that which was happening within the
rooms four walls. A curtain hung
perhaps third of the way across the
study door, tempering the light in the
hall; and the broad shoulders of the
cabby obstructed the remainder of the
opening.
1t was chance. She poised herself
on tiptoe, half undecided and-the
rustling of paper as O'Hagan opened
the parcel afforded her an opportunity
to escape, by drowning the noise of
her movements.
For two eternal seconds She was
edging stealthily down toward the
! outer door; then. in no time at all,
found herself on the landing and
confronted hy fresh complication,
one unforeseen: how to leave the
house without being observed,
stopped and perhaps detained until
10 late? There would be men at the
E.,r. beyond doubt; possibly police,
/ ~ ioned there to arrest all persons
O. empting to leave.
No time for weighing chances. The
choice of two alternatives lay before
her: either to return to the alcove
or to seek safety in the darkness of
the upper fioors-untenanted, as she
had been at pains to determine. The
latter seemed by far the better, the
less dangerous, course to pursue. And
at once she took it.
! There was no light on the first.
| floor landing-it having presumably
been extinguished by the janitor early
in the evening. Only feeble twilight
obtained there, in part reflected glow
from the entrance hall. partly thin and
diffused rays escaping from Maitland's
study So it was that the first few
steps upward took the girl into dark
ness so close and unrelieved as to
seem almost palpable.
At the turn Of the staircase she
paused, holding the rail and resting
for an instant, the while she listened,
ere ascending at more sedate pace
| to haven of safety more complete in
that 1t would be more remote from
the battle-ground below.
And, resting so, was suddenly chilled
through and through with fear, sheer
childish dread of the intangible and
unknown terrors that lurked in the
blackness above her. 1t was as II,
rendered supersensitfve by strain and
excitement, the quivering filaments of
her ,subconsciousness, like spiritual
tentacles feeling ahead of her, had
encountered and recoiled from shape
of evil, specter of horror obscene and
malign, crouching, ready to spring,
| there, in the shadow of night.
And her breath was smothered In
her throat and her heart smote so
madly against the frail walls of its
cage that they seemed like to burst,
while she stood transfixed, frozen in
inaction, limbs stiffening, roots of her
hair stirring, fingers gripping the ban
lister rail until they panied her; and
with eyes that stared wide into the
black heart of nothingness, until the
night seemed pricked with evanescent
periods of dim fire, peopled with mon
strous and terrible shadows closing
about her.
Yeti was absurd! She must not
yield to such puerile superstitions.
There was nothing there.
There was something there
something that like an incarnation Of
hatred was stalking her.
| If only she dared scream II only
she dared turn and fly, back to the
| comfort of light and human com.