The Washington times., 1912-04-06
CHAPTER I.
The Awakening.

Once more the breath of life began
to stir In that fun bosom, to which
again vital warmth had on this day
Of days crept slowly back
And as she lay there. prone upon the
dusty floor, her beautiful face buried
and shielded In the hollow of her arm.
a sigh welled from her lips.
Lite-life was flowing back again!
The miracle of miracles was growing
to reality.
Family now she breathed; vaguely ner
heart began to throb once more. She
stirred. She moaned, still Cor the mo-
Iment powerless to cast off holly the
Ienshrouding incubus of that tremendous
idreamless sleep.
Then her hands closed The finely
itapered fingers tangled themselves in
the masses of thick, luxurlant hair
which lay outspread all over and about
her, The eyelids trembled.
And. moment later, Beatrice Ken
Idrfek was sitting up, dazed and utterly
Iuncomprehending, peering about her at
the strangest vision which since the
world began has ever been the lot of
any human creature to behold-the vi
sion of place transformed beyond all
power of the intellect to understand.
| For Of the room which she remann-
Ibered, which had been her last sight
when $50 long, so very long, ago) her
eyes had closed with that sudden snd
Iunconquerable d-owsiness, of that room,
say, remained only walls, ceiling, floor
or rust-red steel, and crumblirg centent
Quite gone was all the plaster, as Dy
magic. Here or there a heap of whitish
dust betrayed where some of its detrl-
tus still lay.
Gone was every picture, chart, and
map which-but an hour since. II
seemed to her-had decked this office of
Allan Stern. consulting engineer; this
aerie up in the forty-eighth story of the
metropolitan Tower.
Furniture there now was none. Over
the still intact glass of the windows
lcobwebs were draped so thickly as al
most to exclude the light of day-a
strange, 1y-infested curtain where once
neat green snade-rollers had hung.
Even as the bewldered giri sat there,
lips parted, eyes wide with amaze, a
spider seized his buzzing prey and scam
pered back into a hole in the wall.
A huge. leathery bat, suspended up
side down in the far corner, cheeped
with dry, crepitant sounds Of irritation.
Beatrice rubbed her eyes.
"What?" she said, quite slowly
Dreaming? How singular: only
wish. could remember this when wake
up. OF all the dreams ever had, this
ones certainly the strangest. So real.
Iso vivid! Why. l could swear / was
Iawake-and yet"
All at once q sudden DOUBT flashed
into her mind. An uneasy expression
dawned across her face. Her eyes grew
wild with a great fear. the fear of ut
ter and absolute incomprehension.
Something about this room, this weird
awakening, bore in upon her conscious
ness the dread tidings this was not q
dream!
Something drove home to her the fact
that It was real, objective. positive!
And with a gasp of fright she struG-
gled UP amid the litter and the rubbish
OF that uncanny room.
OH" she cried in terror. as a huge
scorpion, mAievolent, and with its tail
raised to strike, scuttled away and van
ished though a gaping void where once
the corridor door had swung. "Oh. oh!
Where am 1? What-what has-hap-
pened""
Horrifed beyond all words, pale and
staring, both hands clutched to her
breast. whereon her very clothing now
had torn and crumbled, she faced about.
To her IT seemed as though some mon-
Ystrous. evil thing was lurking in the
tdim corner at her back. She tried to
scream, but no sound. save a choked
gasp, issued from her lips.
Then she started toward the doorway.
Even she took the first few steps her
lgown-a mere tattered mockery of raj
ment-fell away from her.
And, confounded by a new problem,
she stopped short. About her she peered
in vain for something. to protect her
idtsarray. There was nothing!
'why-where my chair?
My desk?" she exclaimed thickly, start
ing toward the place by the window
where they should have been. and were
not. Her shapely feet fell soundlessil
in that strange and impalpable dust
which thickly coated everything.
My typewriter? Is-can that be ms
typewriter? Great heTens. What's thu
matter here, with everything? Am
mad?"
There before her lay somewhat
larger pile of dust mixed with soft and
punky splinters of rotten wood. Amtt
all this decay she saw some bits o
rust, corroded type-bar or two, ever
a few rubber key-caps, still recogniz
able. though with the letters quite OBJ
liberated.
All about her. yelling her completely
In mantle of wnEdrous gloss anC
beauty, her lustrouJ hair fell, as she
stopped to see this strange. incompre
hensible phenomenor. She tried to picl
up one of the rubber caps. At he
merest touch it crumb.ed to am i'm
palpable white powder.
Back. with a shuddCI!ng cry, the cir
lsprang, terrified.
'Merciful Heavens" she suppllcate ed
i"What-what does all this mean?"
For a moment she stood there. he
every power OF thought. OF motion
numbed. Breathing not. she only stare
in wild kind OF cringtng amazement
as perhaps you might if you should Sc
a dead man move.
Then to the door she ran. Out int
tho hall she peered, this way and that
down the dismantled corridor, up tn
wreckage OF the stairs. which were a.
numbered, like the office itself, wit
dust and webs and vermin.
Aloud she hailed: "Oh! Help, hell
help" No answer. Even the echoe