Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1913-06-23
THE RED BUTTON


The match went out. and with COM
mon impulse Tommy North and Pro-
fessor Noll struggled to see who
would be first to get back through
that door.
There followed alarms, screams, the
running of women, Mysteries on the
part of Mrs. Moore, who had started
from bed at Tommy's first cry
Tommy North, albeit ordinarily a
brave and resourceful young man
enough, was of no use in this crisis,
what with the compression OF
ten emotional years into ten
minutes of life Worse for
him, the en-minded Mrs Moore,
seeing the blood, cried, You MUIR
dererl" clutched at his coat, and fell
into a faint. Upon Professor Noll
devolved the masculine guidance of
this affair, and he thought first, not
of the police, but of a doctor. By
this time Miss Harding and Miss
Jones were weeping breast TO breast;
Mrs. Moore had recovered to say
that she always expected 1t OF Mr.
North, and Miss Estrilla. the invalid
lady on the top floor. had called from
the head of the stairs, What is it?'
With the brutality which impels us
in crisis to eonfide unpalliated hor-
rors, some one shrieked "Hanska 5
murdered" There came from above
some Spanish calculations TO which
no one paid much attention, and
them a rafting Of the hook of the
, telephone, which hung on door
post in that fourth-floor hall.
Professor Noll, his mind still on the
necessity for calling doctor, slipped
into ulster and bed-shoes and rushed
across the street to rouse the house
physician in the apartment hotel.
He was some time making himself
known and understood. AS he neared
his own door again he saw Mr.. Es-
trira entering almost on the run.
There's been a murder! Captain
Hanska's killed." Professor Noll
called after him.
1T know-my seester telephone-she
is frighten'," Estrilla called back
shrilly over his shoulder, and he hur-
ried up the stairs.
BY this time the open door, the
fluttering lights, the screams and
mysteries, had begun TO attract the
attention of this and that late pedes-
TRAN. A millman pulled up, hitched
and entered. and then a night-faring
printer. Presently the little knot in
the street and the pariors was aug
mented by woman, fully and rath-
er over-luxuriously dressed, as
though for the theatre-a big picture
hat and a black satin. fur-edged eve
ming coat over light gown which
showed here and there the glitter of
sequins. She was a large but shape
ly woman of uncertain age; yet SO
pleasing withal that the gathering
loafers, even in the excitement OF a
murder, spared a few admiring
glanees at her face. Her expression
changed momentarily with each
sound from above, and with these
changes the ghost of a line of dim
pies played about her generous mo-
bile mouth. The mouth, tho dim
pies, the peaked chin. the rather
small straight nose, all appeared In
strange contrast to her large light
eyes, which arrested attention at
once through curious appearance of
loking far away
The printer and the milkman has
tened to tell her their news. Some
row was on up there; they overheard
something about "a murder. AT that
word the strange woman with quick,
efiicient gestures drew off her long
evening gloves. Strengthened out her
fingers, rolled them into a neat ball
and put them away in her muff
'rm goin' up" she confided to her
fellows. II belong there-they need
a sensible woman. from the way
they're screechin'. You better not
follow-you'n DO no geod an u might