Williams news., 1922-07-21
who had come back7 That, though

into the hall to the head of the stairs,
 where he looked down and listened.
 From here the sound of some one nov
 ing about came to him distinctly; he
 could see no light below, but when he
 ran down to the turn of the stairs, it
 became plain that there was very
 dim and f1ickering light in the library.
 He crept on farther down the stair
 case His hands were cold and moist
 from his excitement, and his body was
 hot and trembling.
 Whoever 1t was that was moving
 about downstairs, even if he was not
 one who had a right to be there, at
 least felt secure from interruption.
 He was going with heavy step from
 window to window; where he found a
 shade up he pulled it down brusquely
 and with a violence which suggested
 great strength under a nervous strain
 a shade, which had been pulled down,
 flew up, and the man damned 1t as
 though 1t had startled him; then, after
 an instant, he pulled 1t down again.
 Alan crept still farther down and at
 last caught sight of him. He was a
 big, young-looking man, with broad
 shoulders and very evident vigor;
 Alan guessed his age at thirty-fve; he
 was handsome-he had a straight
 forehead over daring. deep-set eyes;
 his nose, lips and chin were power fully formed; and he was expensively and very carefully dressed. The light by which Alan saw these things came from a flat little pocket searchlight that the man carried in one hand. which threw little brilliant circle of light as he directed 1t; and now, as the light chanced to fall on his other hand-powerful and heavily muscled Alan recollected the look and size of the finger prints on the chest of drawers upstairs. He did not doubt that this was the same man who had gone through the desk; but since he had already rif1ed the desks, what did he want here now? As the man moved out of sight, Alan crept on down as far as the door to the library; the man had gone on into the rear room. and Alan went far enough into the library so he could see him.
 He had pulled open one of the draw CTS in the big table in the rear room and with his light held so high as to show what was in it, he was tumbling over its contents and examining them. He went through one after another of the drawers of the table like this; after examining them, he rose and kicked the last one shut diSguStedly; he stood looking about the room ques- ttoningly, then he started toward the front room.
 He had as yet, neither seen nor heard anything to alarm him, and as he went to the desk in the front room and peered impatiently into the draw CTS, he slammed them shut, one after another He strengthened and stared about. "D-n Beni D-n Ben i'' he calculated violently and returned to the rear room. Alan, again following him, found him on his knees in front of one of the drawers under the book cases. As he continued searching through the drawers, his irritation be came greater and greater. He jerked one drawer entirely out of its case, and the contents flew in every direc- ton; swearing at 1t, he gathered up the letters. One suddenly caught his attention; he began reading 1t closely, then snapped 1t back into the drawer, crammed the rest on top of 1t, and went on to the next of the files. He searched in this manner through half a dozen drawers, plainly finding noth- ing at all he wanted; he dragged some of the books from their cases, felt be- hind them and showed back some of the books but dropped others on the floor and blasphemy burst from him. The beam of light from the torch in his hand swayed aside and back and forth. Without warning, suddenly it caught Alan as he stood in the dark of the front room; and as the dim white circle of light gleamed into AL ans face, the man looked that way and saw him.
 The effect of this upon the man was SO strange and so bewildering to Alan | that Alan could only stare at him. | The big man seemed to shrink into | himself and to shrink back and away | from Alan. He roared out something i In a below thick with fear and hor- | TOT; he seemed to choke with terror | There was nothing in his look akin to | mere surprise or alarm at realizing that another was there and had been seeing and overhearing him. The light which he still gripped swayed pack and forth and showed him Alan again, and he raised his arm before ais face as he recoiled-
 The consternation of the man was 50 complete that it checked Alan's rush ,oward him he halted, then advanced silently and watchfully. As he went forward, and the light shone upon his lace again, the big man cried out 
 "D-n you, d-n you, with the hole ,bove your eyei The bullet got you And now you've got Ben! But you .an't get mel Go back to hell! You