Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-10-06
cHAPTER v.
he House Of Secret Agents.

@N1 -
In his throat seemed choking
him. His hands We're cold AMI
wet, but steady. There was no
light at all inside the doors before
which he had halted, but now he had
come to an Office where some n was
working. There was the barest sound
Of movement and a low light. Some
closely shaded desk light probably
gave the faintest glimmer through the
frosted pane of the door. jim no
sooner discerned this than his finger
tried the doorknob. Finding the door
locked, he struck instantly with the
butt of the revolver, smashing a hole
through the glass. He struck again,
smashing the hole larger, and thrust
his arm In, turned the knob on the
inside, jerked his arm out, kicked the
door open and sprang within and
crouched with revolver ready.
Between his first smash of the glass
light had glowed through on his hand.
If he had not been sur Of that be
now might have believed he had bro
ken into an empty DOM 1t was alb
solutely black and silent Curtains
pulled close over the windows shut
out all but a feeble reflection of light
from the street, and there was no
sound of any sort In the room or In
the building. The noise Of footsteps
following up the stairs had ceased.
The man In the hall either had halted
at hearing the attack on the door or
else was creeping, as Jim himself had
crcpt, silently down the corridor.
A flash of fame almost In his face
so close hat the powder stung on his
cheeks and the fumes choked him
ni0ng min back of his baiaifae. de
fred back-that is, his finger jerked
the trigger and his revolver roared
after the other, but the bullet coul
have found no mark. He recovered
himself, crouched, fired again-blindly
or only In the general direction Of the
fame which had burst at him. The
fash Of the other revolver spurted
again, but 1t did not stun him so much
this time. 1t was something else
striking him a second OF so after the
shot-something which bruised and
stupefed him with its first shock, with
its next knocked him down, and with
its third a blank.
He was lying face downward upon
some sort of a leather couch when he
became conscious again. There was a
tremendous pain in his head, and
when he tried to move his hands he
discovered that they were tied to-
gether and bound to his body. These
discoveries brought him sufficient
memoir Of the struggle and gave him
such realization of his present condi-
ton that he made no move after the
first, which told him that he was Sc
curely bound. He made no cutlery,
and after his first look at the black
leather couch upon which he lay he
closed his eyes again and lay as inert
ly as possible.
The smell of strong tobacco, of the
sort smoked In a pipe, was the first
sensation which gave him knowledge
of his surroundings. The smoke was
thicker at one moment than at an
other and thus told Jim that the
smoker was her in the He was
sitting-or standing-quite still, for,
though Jim listened intently, he heard
no sound but the puff at the pipe. The
denseness Of the smoke indicated that
the room was small, and as Jim ven
tured to peer above the edge Of the
couch he discovered that to be the
fact.
Before he observed these details
Jim had supposed hat he was a pris-
oner In the office into which he had
broken or elsewhere In the Office build
ing-perhaps In some basement room.
Now he recognized that he must have