The Washington times., 1913-04-20

4
ers were watched. The glimpse of tina
| crouchinS figure gave ME a bad momen
OF panic, but Jeffrey's voice just thaI
J put me back on my feet.
| Come along. Drew" he said. Were
| getting warm
! The fash of his torch showed m,
the way into his closet. Jeffrey crowd
| ed back against the side wall to le
me pass And then / saw that behint
the garments that hung from the hooks
narrow door. opening back.
Go in" said jeffrey. It's all right
1t took me minute to see where W.
\ were. Then I made out long pas
! sage of level flooring on the right
leading in a curve around swelling
dome of lath and plaster that looked
| like an enormous tomb.
That's the vaulting to the ceiling OF
| the room below" said Jeffrey. II sup.
pose it's the dining room. Better lei
| me lead, / guess.
He was excited and triumphant. Not
so much, l thought, over finding the
| secret doorway at the bottom of the
closet, but by what the tracks on the
| floor and the little chips of plaster
! seemed to be telling him.
We had circled half way around the
dome when he stopped short and conf,
IDENTIFY opened another door. 1 heard
him give a little gasp when he got in
side and squeezed through quickly be-
side him. He closed the door behind US.
1t was an extraordinary roOm-not
more than seven feet wide and fully
thirty long, so that / should have
thought of it as corridor had not the
furniture, ranged in row along one
Of the walls. declared plainly enough
that some one had lived there. There
was a narrow bed. dressing table, a
chiffonier and, further along than that.
row of bare hooks. screwed into the
wall at uneven intervals
An exclamation from Jeffrey attract
ed my attention to the lighting arrange
ments. There were no regular electric
fixtures, but from hole in the ceiling
wire hung down a little beyond the
dressing table, and on the end of it was
a double socket, with two high candle
power lamps.
They wanted light up here, and pien-
ty of it," said jeffrey.
But where are the windows" i ex-
claimed.
There were no windows. Instead there
was long. narrow skylight. and the
carpentry of it was as rough and SLOW
enly as that which had put I'D the
clothes hooks and dangled that unpro-
tected electric cord through hole in
the ceiling.
JEFFREY sat down on the low chair IN
front of the dressing table, laid down
his electric bulls-eye, and pulled open
the one shallow drawer. What he found
there struck me as trivial enough. but
IT seemed to interest him mightiiy-a
well-used powder-puff and box OF
rice powder. :
"A girl would have to be pretty de-
cjded blonde. Drew" he observed. TO
put on powder of that color and not
have IL show"
Jeffrey said ! quickly, lets & get
1 don't know why. but there's some
thing sinister about IT,
He looked around from the table and
nodded at me soberly. 1T Is sinister.
he assented. Its ghastly. But were
not through yet
what is it?" / demanded. What is
It that 1 feel in here? 1 haven't any
extra sense for things.
"In the first place." said Jeffrey. its
a concealed room. That accounts Ior
the shape of it-that accounts Tor tne
skyiisht. And it's a concealedd d,. ICON, nsd
here a good. long while-unknown to the
seryants-unknown, / imagine. to the
mistress Of the house herself. some one
has lived here, and II I'm not mistaken
he hesitated a second. then let me
I'm not mistaken. died here, Drew.
He got up, with a little shiver from
the dressing-table, carrying the Dull 3
eve with him, and walked TO the otner
end of the room-the end We hao ho'
come In by. 81
Under the strong rays of light even
couId see from where j stood that there
was another door there, though there
was NO latch or frame-iust frayed,
sojled outline upon the wall paper. Jei-
frey turned around and leaned back
AGAINST il. his face wearing puzzled.
frown. His eyes We're nxed
all the time on the dressing table, and
the wall behind 1t. Then his gaze went
up to the electric wire.
Nothing quite. right Ia this. room.
Drew he said. 'Why isn't that dress
ing mirror under .tRs- light vhera 1t
would shine on both sides Of the face?
Come. Let's pE things tidy. Catch
hold"
Already he was at one end of the
I took the other and We
lifted it carefully along to its proper
position just under the electric light
.Ah" said Jeffrey. In a fash he had
cut his knife and was digging away at
small hole in the plaster behind where
the mirror had been.
/ watched him in silence. His look
was triumphant enough now. In an
other minute he had dug something out
o: the joist In the wall and was holding
1t out in his palm to me. 1t was II
small. slightly flattened revolver bullet.
Jeffrey" I gasped. do you work
miracles? How did you know that was
there
Look at the chip broken off the cor
ner of the mirror said Jeffrey. The
bullet cid that. You can see the shape
Of 1t. The bullet must have gone some
where. If the shot had been fired from
the other direction it would nave gone