The daily Alaskan., 1922-06-13
CHAPTER V
An Encounter.

him. reaching back into some vague, distant darkness. and great rooms with wide portlered doOrwsyS gaping on both sides. He turned into the room upon his right. glanced to see that the shades were drawn on the windows toward the street, then found the switch and turned on the electric light. | Alan had the feeling which so often comes to one in an unfamiliar and vacant house that there was some one in the house with him. He listened and seemed to hear another sound In the upper hall. a foOtstep He went out quickly to the foot Of the stairs and looked up them.
 "Is any one here?" he called. "ls any one herey
 | His voice brought no response. He went half way up the curve of ,he wide stairway and called again, and liS- tened then he fought down the feeling he had had; Sherrin had said there would be no one in the house, and Alan was certain there was no one. So he went back to the room where he had left the light.
 The center of this room, like the room next to It was occupied hy library tahle.desk He pulled open some drawers in it; one or two had bmeprlutS and technical drawings in them: the others had only the mtscel- lany which srrumulatcs in a room much used. There were drawers also under the bookcases all around the room: they appeared, when Allan opened some oS them to contain pam. phlprS hf various Sncirtlrs. and the scientific correspondence of which Shcrriu had t.11 him Alan felt that seeing these things was bringing hls tnther closer Co him; they gave him Irtle of the feeling he had heemunUhe 10 get when he looked at his fathers picture. He could realize better now the lonely. restless man. pursued by , some ghost h. could not kill, taking up for distraction one subject of study after another. eNhauStIug each in turn until he could no longer make It en- gross him. and then absorbing him self In the next.
 On the top of q chest of high draw CTS in corner near the dressing table were some papers. Alan went over to look al them; they were Invl' trrlons, notices of concerts and of plays twenty years Old-the mall, probably. uf the morning hen 'nry'' $ wife had gone away. left where her maid or she herself had laid lhrM. and only picked up. and put back there at rhe times since when the room was 1, dustpd. As Alan touched them, he sew that hlS fingers left marks In The dust on the smooth top of the chest |; he noticed that some one else had touched rhe things and made marks of the same sort as he had made, The freshness of these other marks star tied him; they had been made within { a day or so. They could not have been made by Sherrill. for Alan had noticed that SherrilrS hands were slender and delcately formed; Cor vet. too. was not a large man; Alans own hand was Of good size and pow erfll. but when he put his fingers over the marks the other man had made. he found that the other hand must have been larger and more powerful than his own. Had 1t been COryet'S serv- ant? It might have been, though the marks seemed too fresh for that; Tor the servant. Sherrill had said, had left the day Corvet's disappearance was discovered.
 This proof that some one had been prylng about In the house before him self and since COrvet had gone. star tied Alan and angered him. Who had been searching in Benjamin Corve' $ in Alan's house? He pushed the drawers shut hastily and hurried , across the hall to the room opposite Tn this room-plainly Benjamin Cor yet's hPdruOm-weTe no signs Ot 'h- trusion. He went to the door Of the room connecting with It, turned on thp light. and looked In. It was a smaller room than the others ana contained a roll-top desk and a cahi- net. The cover of the desk was closed, ] and the drawers Of the cabinet were shut and apparently undisturbed. He tried the cover of the desk, but 1t ap- peared to be locked; after looking around vainly for key, he tried sgain. exerting a little more force, and ;hIs time the top went up easily, tearing away the metal plate into which the claws of the lock claSped and the two long screws which had | held 1t. He examined the lock, sur prised. and saw that the screws must { have been merely set Into the holes scars showed where a ChiSel or some metal Implement had been thrust In under the top to force 1t up, The pIgeonholes and little drawers in the ! upper part of the desk, as he swiftly opened them. he found entirely empty He hurried to the cabinet; the draw ! CTS of the cabinet too had been forced