Evening star., 1918-04-21

down upon sleeping people.
To carry out this program the first
step would of course, be to secure knowl-
edge Of the number, location, manner OF
the secret of defenses of France, the plans
of fertilization, the maps Of the danger
Zone,' the documentary evidence of her
strongest and weakest points. And who SO
likely to be the guardian of these as the
Baron de Carjorac? That is how l know
that The Red Crawl was after some
thing of vital Importance to German in
tersts. Miss Lorne. That he got it,
know from the fact that the baron. while
limiting at disgrace and speaking Of peril
TO his own life, dared not confide in the
of the French police. Moreover. if The
Red Crawl had failed to secure anything.
the baron, with his congenital loathing
of all crawling things. would have left the
Chateau Larouge Immediately"
'Oh, to think that you guessed 1t SO
easily, AND it was all such a puzzle to
me. l could not think, Mr.. Cleek, why
he did remain; why he would not be per-
suaded to go, although every night was
adding to the horror ,of the thing and it
seemed clear to me that he was going
mad. OF course. Nine. la Comtesse and
her brother tried to reason him out of
what he declared, tried to make him
believe that it was all fancy. that he did
not really see the fearful thing; 1t was
equally in vain that l myself tried to
persuade him to leave the place before
his reason became unsettled. Last night
she paused. shuddered. put both hands
over her face and drew in deep breath
last night I. too, saw The Red Crawl.
Mr.. Cleek-I, too! l, too"
You, Miss Lorne?"
Eyes. I made up my mind that would
that, If 1t existed, would have absolute
proof of it. The countess and her brother
had scoffed SO frequently, had promised
the baron so often that they would set a
oy-1 TOD kl1N tNr af0k,
and then had said so often to poor. foolish,
easily persuaded Athalie that 1t was USE
less doing anything SO silly, as 1t was alb
solutely certain that her father only
imagined the thing. that I determined to
take the step myself, unknown to any of
them. After everybody had gone to bed l
threw on a loose. dark gown, crept into
the corridor. and hid in niche from
which / could see the door of the baron's
room. l waited until after midnight-lons
after-and then-and then"
"Calm yourself, Miss Lorne. Then the
thing appeared, l suppose?"
Yes; but not before something
equally terrible had happened. 1 saw
the door of the countess room open; I
saw the countess herself come out. ac-
companied by the man who up till then
! had believed, like everybody else, was
her brother"
And who is not her brother,f after
all:"
mo. he is not. Theirs is closer tie.
I saw her kis him. I saWaher go with
him to an angle of the corridor. lift a
rug and raise trap in the floor"
Hulio. Hulio:' calculated Gleek.
Then she. too, knows of the passage
which leads to the sewers Clearly,
then, this Countess de la Tour is not
what she seems, when she knows Sc
crets that are known only to the fol-
lowers of--well, never mind. Go
on, Miss Lorne, go on. You saw her lift
that trap; and what then?"
Then there came up out of it the
most loathsome-looking.c creature have
ever seen: huge. crawling. red shape
that was like blood-red spider, with
me eyes me hooked beak, and the
writhing tentacles of an octopus. 1t
made no sound. but it seemed to know
her. to understand her, for when she
waved her hand toward the open door
or her own room. obeying that gesture,
1t dragged it's huge bulk over the
threshold and passed from sight Then
the man she called her brother kissed
her again, and as he descended into the
darkness below the trap 1 heard her
say quite distinctly: Tell Marise that
delay the revel. II am Compelled to
foreSo 1t tonight, there shall be a
wilder one tomorrow, when Clodoche
arrives"
"Clodoche? BY Jupiterm Cleek al
nnau mosu 3pmpea ;pn pea. as Nh he spoke. Now I
thing yet. Go on with the story, please.
What then, Miss Lorne, what then?"
Then The man below said something
which l could not hear and she an
swered in these words: No, no; there is
no danger. will guard it safely and 1t
shall go into no hands but Clodoche's.
He and Count Won Hetzler will be there
about midnight tomorrow to complete
the deal jand pay over the money. Clo-
dochc Jk:il want the fragment, of
,eaT.,e, te sl3 :, 70 the scaat as a proof