The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1920-04-09

She locked the windows and doors.
Quite instinctively her hand brushed
the tiny nacre button which controlled
the Venetian chandelier But she did
not press it. She left the boudoir in
darkness For she was familiar with
every stick of furniture about the
place. She knew the exact location
of the great, carved, crimson-and-gold
Spanish renaissance day bed between
the window and the fireplace, the big
buhl table in the center of the room
tie smaller one, covered with mass
OF bricabrac, between the two win,
dows, the low divan running along the
south wall and overlapping toward the
fireplace, the three chairs at odd
angles. the four little tabouretts and,
in the northeast corner the Chinese
screen. inlaid with ivory and lace and
Jade. behind which she kept small
liquor chest. She knew the room, every
inch OF it, and could move about it,
in spite of the darkness, like cat.
The Thing. on the other hand, what
ever it was, would find many pitfalls
in the cluttered-up boudoir if it tried
to get rambunctious.
These latter were the exact words
with which Diana Manning expressed
the thought to herself; in this very
moment of awe and hatred. Remem-
ber-she was born and bred on the
East Side. OF course, since those days
of sooty, sticky, grimy tenement
chrysalis, she had learned to broad
en- her as and slur her RS and to
change the slang of the cutters for
that of the race tracks. But, some
how, she knew that the Thing would
be more familiar with her earlier die
ton.
She lay down on the couch staring
into the darkness. She had decided
to watch carefully, to ,pounce upon
the Thing suddenly and to throttle it..
For, somehow, the Thing had taken
on the suggestion of deliberate, per-
sonal intention of an aggressive hos
tility-something which felt and
hated, even suffered, yet which had
no bodily reality. The realization of
it froze Diana into rigidity-not the
rightly of fear, but something far
worse than fear, partaking of Fate
of-she didn't know what. She only
knew that she must wateh-then
pounce and kill.
81 must have matters out with it,
she thought. zone of us two is mas
ter in this room; it of l. And l can't
afford to wait all night. At half
past eleven young Bunny Whipple is
calling for me"
Again at the thought of Bunny
Whipple, she felt that strange, hate
full new sensation Of awe, blended
with pity. The Thing was responsible
for 1.-THE Thing.
How she hated it! She clenched her
fists until the knuckles stretched
white. What had the Thing to do
with Bunny Whipples little blue
eyed, golden-haired wife-the bride
Who
Diana cut off the thought in mid
air and tossed it aside as if it were
soiled glove She watched more
carefully than ever, her breath COM
ing in short staccato bursts, her body
tense and stationed, her mind rigid.
She tried to close her mind; she did
not want the Thing to peep in upon
it. For right then she knew-she lid
not feel nor guess-she knew that
the Thing had the trick of expanding
al decreasing at will.
1t made her angry. She did not con-
slider it fair.
For it gave to the Thing the ad-
vantage of suddenly shrinking to the
size of a pin point and hiding in a
knot of the Tabriz rug which COW
cred the floor and, Immediately after
wards. of bloating into INDUSTRIOUS
size, like a balloon, and floating
toward the succeed ceiling like an
immense soap bubble-hanging there
looking down with that strange,
hateful, rather friendly determination
bunny Whipple's wife" she
thought again 81 saw her yester-
day and the silly little fool recog-
nized me. She would have spoken to
me had I given her the chance. Spo-
ken to me as she wrote me-asking
me to give her back her husbands
love-love-"
Her mind formed the. word, ca
ressed it as it were something FL
tile and soft and naive and laugh
able, like ball of cotton or a tiny
kitten
The next moment, she whipped it
aside with her hard will. She sat
up straight. For at the forming of
the word, the Thing which a second
earlier had been a pin-point sitting
on the gilded edge of Sevres vase,
hloated and stretched gigantically,
leaped up with an immense rushing
of wings, appeared to float, leaped
again toward the ceiling as if try
ing to jerk it away from the cross
beams.
Then just as suddenly, it dropped
on the floor 1t lay there, roaring
with laughter. She felt it. She knew