The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1912-12-26
CHAPTER XVIII.
What Am | to Do Now?


Early morning saw Sweetwater
peering into the depths of his closet.
The hole was hardly visible. This
meant that the book he had pushed
across it from the other side had not
been removed.
Mr.. Brotherson's bed was In a re-
mote corner from the loop-hola made
by Sweetwater; but In the stiffness
now pervading the whole building. the
latter could hear his even breathing
very distinctly. He was in q deep
sleep.
The young detectives moment had
come.
Taking from his breast small box,
he placed it on shelf close against
the partition. An instant of quiet
listening, then he touched a spring
in the side of the box and laid his ear.
In haste, to his loop-hole.
A strain of well-known music broke
softly from the box and sent it's vi
brations through the wall.
1t was answered instantly by stir
within; then, as the noble air con.
tinued. awakening memories of that
fatal instant when it crashed through
the corridors Of the Hotel Clermont,
drowning Miss Challoner's cry If not
the sound of her fall, word burst
from the sleeping mans lips which
carried it's own message to the listen
ing detective.
1t was Edith! Miss Challoner's
first name, and the tone bespoke q
shaken soul.
Sweetwater, gasping with excite
nent, caught the box from the shelf
and silenced it. 1t had done its work
and it was no part of Sweetwaters
plan to have this strain located, or
even to be thought real. But it's echo
still fingered in Brotherson's other
wise unconscious ears; for another
Edith" escaped his lips, followed by
, smothered but forceful utterance Of
hese words, You know prom
sed you"
Promised her what? He did not say.
Would he have done so had the music
asted trifle longer? Would he yet
complete his sentence? Sweetwater
rembled with eagerness and listened
oreathlessly for the next sound. Broth
erson was awake. He was tossing in
mis- bed. Now he has leaped to the
1oor. Sweetwater hears him groan.
then comes another silence, broken
at last by the sound Of his body fall
Ing back upon the bed and the
troubled ejaculation of Good Cod"
wrung from lips no torture could have
forced into complaint under any day.
time conditions.
Sweetwater continued to listen, but
he had heard all, and after some few
minutes longer Of fruitless waiting, he
withdrew from his post. The episode
was over. He would hear no more
that night.
Was he satisfied? Sweetwatef
imagined the scene saw the figure Of
Brotherson hesitating at the top Of
1.-The stairs-saw hers advancing from
the writing-room, with startled and
! uplifted hand heard the music-the
crash of that great fnale-and decid.
ed, without hesitation, that the words
he had just heard were indeed the
thoughts of that moment. Edith,
you know / promised YOU" What
had he promised? What she received
was death! Had this been in hia
mind? Would this have been the ter
mination of the sentence had he wax
ened less soon. to consciousness and
caution?
Sweetwater dared to believe 1t.
I Could it be? Was 1t he who was
dreaming now, or was the event Of
the night mere farce Of his own
imagining? Mr.. Brotherson wal
whistling in his room, gaily and with
! ever increasing verve, and the tuns
which filled the whole floor with
music was the same grand finale from