Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-03-14
SUNDAY MAGAZINE FOR MARCH IA. 1915

Dir! ne asked.
Alaxey shook himself. "N-no-y-yes,'
he faltered "My key Room 224!'
mo, Sir, 22l is yours, said the clerk.
"All right" said Maxey, as he staggered
to the elevator
He reeled from the car to his room, and
unlocked the door, dashing through the
gloom of the chamber to the door connect
ing it with 223, Brutos room. But this
door was locked, and the key, if there was
any in it, was on the other side. AIaxey
ratified the knob and pounded on the panels
"Bruto! Bruto!' he called.
There was no answer. He glanced up.
There was transom, and over it hoated a
ray of light from 223. Aha! Then there was
someone in there, someone who had come
up since it had grown dark! Brute must be
in there!
MIaxey draggedssr chair to the door and
tried to look through the transom; but he
was too short. He brought table over and
mounted this, so that his eyes just reached
the level of the transom. He reached up
and showed it open, and beheld a sight that
nearly made him fall backward from his
perch. In the middle of the room, in a
rocking chair, sat Mrs. Horace Higgins, her
arms folded, her gaze fixed on that part of
the chamber which, Nlaxey knew, held the
bed, but of which he could not get the
slightest view
But he did not require view of the bed
His imagination pictured the scene for
him, Brute, the victim of a jealous wo-
mans hate! He guessed it all in the one
brief moment he chung to the edge of the
transom. She had found out about the
change of booking She had followed
She had come to the same hotel; and, when
Brute lay doing on his bed, had crept into
the room, and stabbed -orwas it shot?-him
At all events, there he lay, wctering in his
dressing the bed, and this is what she said
"So,' she was saying in h-pitched
tremulous key, $50, Grace Iggins, YOU
would deceive your lawful, welded wife
tclin' me there wasn't to be no 'ussles in
your hact! You would tyke a hinnocent
lad an dress i'm up to myke me think {
was to be your hassistant, when all the time
that femyle was angin back lartin at me
Oh, Grace, 'Orace To think you would
bring me acrost the hocean to desert me like
that! But Hi don't blvme you more than
that mis- rable man which hcnticed you
hinto their grawsp, and whose fyce | never
liked nohow!' There was a pause. Then
"W'at's thato Hif don't blyme you, wy
are you where you hare? You're where H
want you, that's wy! An there you Il st "
w at 5 THAT! ~ lou Ill care 1Or the nai-
jiencc! Does the hauiience care for my
bleedin' cart? No, Hill ave my wy now
though the King and all is court was wytin
for you to happear!"
MANEY could stand no more He leaped
A'A from the table and rushed out to the
hall and to the door of Bruto's room. 1t
was unlocked! He burst in and confronted
Mrs. Higgins At least she thought he was
going to; for she sprang to her feet and
faced him. But really his attention flew
to the bed, on which lay Brute, not welter.
ing in his blood, not gasping his last, but
writhing in all the handouts that a human
being could wear on wrists and ankles
"Herc!' cried Maxey. SECT up out OF
there!"
Hi cawn't!" moancd Brute "Tyke EN-,
hotf. an Hi will
"ryke EN- hoff, ha-ha!" laughed Mrs
Higgins
you -you-dd YOU put these on himo"
demanded Alaxev
Hi did, said she. Hand what of it,"
But but" he turned upon Brute
"Nou-vou don't mean to say YOU can't
get out OF emp Iou-why, I've seen vol,
do it a dozen times! What's the gag? Take
EN- off quick, tell you!'
Tell i'm a thousand times, laughed Mrs.
Higgins, land see i'm do it! l'yke EN- off
Wy doesn't 60"
YES, demanded Maxey, grabbing Brute
by the slack OF his lapel and dragging him up