The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-12-03

short, tunnellike passage through
the ground, strongly braced and
stayed, and trending gently upward,
confronted him.
He stepped forward into tho
opening, and, bending head and
shoulders, for the roof was scarcely
four feet in height, followed the
passage for some five or six yards
to where 1t ended abruptly In 9
blank wall of earth, but where,
above his head, third match dis
closed a trap-door. Again Billy
Kane listened, and then cautiously
raised the door. II was pitch black
now. He drew himself up, and
once more listened. There was no
sound He lighted another match
tho stub Of the one before being
carefully consigned to his pocket
and nodded his head in understand
ing. The passage had led him into
a shed, evidently little used, for it
was Uttered and stored with odds
and ends that, judging from the
accumulated dust and dirt, had
been untouched for a long time;
and the shed itself--yes, he was
right-he had pushed the back door
open a little--the shed gave dt
rectly on a lane.
Billy Kane closed the shed door;
and, noting with grim appreciation
that the trap-door, as he closed it
above his head, was an ingenious
arrangement of the floor planking
similar to the construction OF tho
door within the Rats quarters, and
was, moreover, as an added precau.
ton, surrounded by an apparently
careless stowage of the sheds lit
ter, he made his way back along
the passage again. The room door
he examined as he passed through.
II was manipulated from the inside
OF the passage by an ordinary and
frankly obvious spring lock. He
closed 1t and stood for moment
staring at IL speculatively. There
seemed no way of locking It here
in the room, Of protecting himself
from an intrusion through the night
that might not be either as in
structtye or as harmless as this
first one had been. There might
be a way, and there probably was
way of fastening It, the Rat
would surely have seen to that,
but he, Billy Kane, was too far
gone, too weak, too tired, too nearly
all in, TO hunt or search for 1t now
and there was a way Of obviat-
ing the possibility of the door be.
ing opened without first arousing
him and putting him on his guard.
lie went to the table, picked up a
chair. and, carrying it back, tilted
II against the door in the wall.
And now he swayed little, and
his hand sought his eyes. He was
conscious again Of his aching
shoulder and that his head was
swimming dizzily-but he seemed
70 have forgotten something-yes,
he remembered now-that paper
that paper on which she had writ
ten something. He laughed In a
strained, almost delirious way. He
must be worse than he imagined,
IL he had, even for an instant, for
gotten that! Or was IL Just simply
the reaction coming now?
He stumbled toward the table
and, feeling with his hand, secured
the paper-but there was no chair
,'N HN"b anu hS StuIHDleu across
the room, and sat down on the edge
OF the bed. He lighted another
match, held it close to the paper.
and read the pencilled lines:
SO you are back. are you?
Well, so am l! Remember!
The match burned down to his
fingers, and he dropped It on the
floor. What did it mean? Who
was she? He shook his head. AMI
then, with queer, twisted smile
he folded the paper, thrust 1t into
his pocket-and. stretching himself
out fully dressed upon the bed. lay
there staring into the darkness.