Charlevoix county herald., 1916-11-24

why LILO You SoHlc r'cTcf
was no answer. She became quite ex.
cited about it-and persisted. Sud.
denly bored voice broke in:
Number, please?"
you cut me off" June answered
sharply.
What number were you talking
tor
Il don't know. They called me-"
IF l can locate the party, I'll call
you again. Hang up, please"
''Oh bother!"
June put the received back on the
hook and turned to Gordon.
THE reason I'm so put out and irrt
tated about it," she explained, lis be
cause l thought it sounded like my
nurses voice. II was so like hers
as though she were terribly fright.
ened! 1t couldn't have been, though
she added meditatively. She didn't
know was coming here didn't want
her to. And she hadn't any reason to
call up Mr.. Lamar. In fact know
she'd avoid him. l suppose it was
only my imagination"
At the Travis house Mary shrank
away from the telephone and covered
her face with her hands, In terror.
June at Lamar's office! Why? And
secretly, too. Horrors were piling up,
1t had been a wild, unreasoning fear
that drew her to the telephone to
communicate with Lamar. A sense OF
desperation and complete helpless
ness. She knew, as soon as the cen.
trail repeated the number after her,
that she had done a foolish thing. And
then June had answered!
Mary crept to the foot Of the stair
way leading up to the attic and lis
tened. She thought she heard slow,
measured breathing. Then the sound
of something heavy being dragged over
the floor. made her fly to her own room
in instant terror.
There, sitting erect and tense in the
comfortable old chair where she was
accustomed to take her afternoon nap,
she went over the happenings Of the
past hour.
Hour! Had it been only an houri
1t was incredible to suppose that so
much disaster could accumulate In
sixty short minutes. She looked at the
little silver boudoir clock, one OF
June's gifts. Just an hour since, she
had looked from the window to see
Yama coming up the walk, carrying
his suitcase.
Only an hour since he had put the
grip on the front porch and handed
her the key to June's big trunk. Mary
licked off the dreadful events in sort
OF morbid tabulation-the events that
had followed:
When she had gone into June's room
to get the rest of the unpacking fin
ished Yama had followed her closely
His face must have been unnaturally
CHASTITY at the time. She had not no.
ticed until afterward, when it's pallor
was hideous.
Then the trunk! A slight difficulty
in opening II, on account of the key
sticking-the lid flying up suddenly,
and n squat, ugly, grinning face, with
cracked lips parted over ugly snags
of teeth, showed close to her own!
Mary now caught her reflection In
the mirror over the bureau OF her
room. There were blue hollows around
her eyes and pinched, starved look
chung about her nostrils.
Smiling Sans" threat rang in her
ears.
Thought you'd shake me, Ell? Well,
you've got to hide me now, or by -,
III"
She had hidden him - aided by
Yama-the coward who had made this
fearsome situation possible. Together
they had urged Sam up the steps into
the attic. He had gone, snarling at
them, mounting gutter oaths and dire
threats. Just before he had closed the
attic door he had fiourished a knife
with a menacing gesture. Itswas an
indelible warning to Mary, as she sat
alone, recalling the scene.
Suddenly, with a smothered scream,
the old woman jumped to her feet and
caught at the edge of the bureau to
keep from falling. Upstairs from the
attic there was crash that shook the
walls of the room, then a stifled
moanl
CEND OF TENTH INsTALLMENT.)