The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-02-26
CHAPTER IV-continued.

In0 next room.
CHAPTER iV-Continued.
A single half-power electric bulb
now modified the gloom of the hall
way; its fellow made a light blot on
the darkness of the courtyard Even
the windows of the conciergerie were
black.
None the less Lanyard tapped them
smartly.
"Cordon!" he demanded in a stri-
dent voice sill vous plait!"
"Eh?" A startled grunt from within
the lodge was barely audible. Then
the latch clicked loudly at the end of
the passageway.
Cropping his way in the direction of
this last sound, Lanyard found the
small side door ajar. He opened it
and hesitated a moment, looking out
as though questioning the weather;
simultaneously his deft fingers wedged
the latch back with a thin slip of steel
1t had, in fact. not been raining
within an hour. but still the sky was
dense with a low. sullen wrack of
cloud, and still the sidewalks were
inky-wet.
The street was lonely and indiffer-
emily lighted, but a swift. searching
reconnaissance discovered no spy
skulking in the shelter of any of the
nearer shadows.
Stepping out, he slammed the door
and strobe briskly round the corner,
as if making for the cab rank that
lines up along the Luxembourg gar
dens of the Rue de Medicis; his boot
heels made cheerful racket in that
quiet hour; he was quite audibIy go
ing away from Troyon's.
But instead of holding on to the cab
rank, he turned the next corner and
then the next. rounding the block:
and presently. reapproaching the en-
trance to TrOyOn's. paused in the re-
cess of a dark doorway and. lifting
one foot after another. slipped rub
Der pads over his heels. Thereafter
his progress was practically noiseless.
The smaller door yielded to his
touch without a murmur. Inside, he
closed it gently and stood a moment
listening with all his senses-nOt with
his ears alone. but with every nerve
and fiber of his being-with magma
ton to boot. But there was not a
sound or movement in all the house
that he could detect.
And no shadow could have made
less noise than he, slipping cat-footed
across the courtyard and up the stairs,
avoiding with superdeveloped sensi-
tiveness every lift that might have
complained beneath his tread In a
trice he was again in a corridor lead
ing to his bedchamber.
It was quite as gloomy and empty
as it had been five minutes ago, yet
with a difference. a something in its
atmosphere that made him nod briefly
in confirmation Of that suspicion
which had brought him back so
stealthily.
For one thing, Roddy had stopped
snoring. And Lanyard smiled over
the thought that the man from Scot
land Yard might profitably have cop
led that trick of poor Bourke's. of
snoring like the Seven Sleepers when
most completely awake
1t was. naturally. no surprise to find
his bedchamber door unlocked and
slightly ajar. Lanyard made sure of
his automatic. strobe into the room.
and shut the door quietly, but by NO
means soundlessly.
He had left the shades down and the
hangings drawn at both windows; and
since these had not been disturbed.
something nearly approaching COM
plete darkness reigned in the room.
But though promptly on entering his
fingers had closed upon the wall
switch near the door, he refrained
from turning up the lights immediate
ly. with fancy. of impish inspiration,
that it would be amusing to learn
what move Roddy would make when
the tension became too much even for
his trained nerves.
Several seconds PASSED without the
least sound disturbing the stiffness
Lanyard himself grew little impa-
tient when his sight didn't become &C
customed to the darkness because it
was too absolute-it pressed against
his staring eyeballs like a black fluid.
impenetrably Opaque. as unbroken as
the hush within that room.
Still he waited. Surely Roddy
wouldn't be able much longer to en-.
dure such suspense.
And. surely enough. the silence was
abruptly broken by a strange and
moving sound. hushed cry of alarm
that was half moan and half sob.
Lanyard himself was startled, for
that was never Roddy's voice.!
There was a noise OF muff1ed and
confused footsteps. as though some