Evening star., 1918-04-21

turned to Paris at the same time as the
baron and his daughter, he still de-
ferred the proposal"
Has he not made 1t yet?"
eyes, Mr. Cleek. He made 1t six
weeks ago. to be exact. two nights be-
fore the Villa de Carjorac was fired"
You think 1t was fred. them"
II do now, although l had no suspi-
her proposal on the Saturday. the baron
gave his consent on the Sunday and on
Monday night the villa was mystic
riously burnt, leaving all three of us
without an immediate refuge. In the
meantime Madame la Comtesse had
purchased the ruin of the Chateau
Larouge. and during the period of her
brothers deferred proposal was en-
gagged in fitting it up as an abode for
herself and him. On the very day it
Athalie's hand
"Oho.I said Cleek, with a strong ris-
ing Infection. Il think I begin to smell
the toasting of the cheese. OF course,
when the villa was burnt out Madame
la Comtesse insisted that, as the fiancee
Of her brother. Mademoiselle de Car
jorac must make her home at the cha
teau. until the necessary repairs could
be completed. and, of course. the baron
had to go with her"
Yes" admitted Ailsa. THE baron
accepted-Athalie would not have al
lowed him to decline had he wished to
SO we all three went there and have
been residing there ever since. On
the night after our arrival an alarm
ing. horrifying. thing occurred. 1t
was while we were at dinner that the
conversation turned upon the super
natural. upon houses and places that
were reputed to be haunted, and then
Madame la Comtesse made remark
able statement. She laughinglN as
serted that she had just learned that in
purchasing the Chateau Larouge she
had also become the possessor of a sort
OF family ghost She said that she had
only just heard, from an outside source.
that there was a horrible legend con-
nected with the place; in short that for
centuries it had been reputed to be un-
der a sort of spell of evil and T. be
cursed by dreadful visitant known as
The Red Crawl-a hideous and loathe-
some creature. 1t was neither spider
nor octopus. but horribly resemhied
both, and was supposed to appear at
intervals in the middle of the night
and, like the tabled giants of fairy
tales, carry off lovely maidens and de-
YOUR them'"
Who is responsible for that ridicu- :
lous assertion, | wonder? Il think l
may say that l know as much about the
Chateau lIarouge and its history as
anybody, Miss 11orne but I never heard
of this supposed legend before in ali
my life
so the baron. too. declared, laughing
as derisively as any of us over the
story. although it is well known that
he has natural antpathy to all crawl
ing things, an adherence inherited
from his mother, and has been known
to run like frightened child from the
appearance of a mere garden spider"
"Oh"' said Cleek again. Il seel
see. The toasted cheese smells stronger
and there's distinct suggestion of the
Rhine about it this time. There's some
thing decidedly German about that fab
ulous monster and that haunted
chateau, Miss Lorne They are clever
and careful schemers, those German
Johnnies. OF course, this amazing Red
Crawl was proved to have an absolute e
foundation in fact, and equally. of
course. it appeared to the Baron de
Carjorac?"
''Yes-that very night. After we had
all gone to bed the house was reused
by his screams. Everybody rushed to
his chamber. only to find him lying on
the fcor in stale of collapse The
thing had been in his ROOM he said
He had seen it, il had even touched him
"a horrible. hideous red reptjle. with
squirming tentacles. Il huge glowing
body and eyes like flame. 1t had crept
upon him out of the darkness, he knew
not from where. 1t had seized him, re-
sisted all his wild efforts to tear loose
from it, and when he finally sank, over
come and fainting. upon the floor, his
last conscious recollection was of the
ioatnsome tnIng setting down upon
his breast and running it's squirming
feelers' up and down his BODY
"Of course! OF course! That was
part of the game. 1t was after some
thing. Something of the utmost impor-
tance to German interests That's why
the Chateau Larouge was refitted, why
the Villa de Carjorac was burned down
and why this Monsieur CASTOR Merode
became engaged to Mademoiselle
Athalie.'
"Oh. how could you know that. Mr..
Cteek: Nobody eseD suspected. The