River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1916-01-27
CHAPTER IV-Continued.

CHAPTER IV-Continued.
A single half-power electric bulb
now modified the gloom of the hall
waY; it's fellow modo light blot on
the darkness XII tyard. Even
the wind ergerie were
black
None the less LuAy ard tapped them
smartly.
"Cordon!" he demanded in a stri-
dent voice-"Cordon, 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 1t
aid hesitated moment, looking out
az though questioning the weather;
simultaneously his def fingers wedged
the latch back with thin slip Of steel.
1t had, in fact, not been raining
within an hour, but Sill 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 IL 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 audibly 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 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 q murmur Inside, he
closed 1t 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 imagina-
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 superdeve1oped 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.
1t was quite as gloomy and empty
as 1t had been five minutes ago, yet
with difference, something in it's
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 proftably have cop
fed that trick of poor Bourkes, OF
snoring like the Seven Sleepers when
most completely awake.
It 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 nc
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
~, with a 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 a little impa
tient when his sight didn't become &C
customed to the darkness because II
YVES too absolute-it pressed against
his staring eyeballs like 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 a moan and half a sob
Lanyard himself was startled, fol-
that was never Roddy's voice!
There WAS a noise OF muf1ed and