The Glenwood post., 1923-03-15
CHAPTER XVII
Under Cover Of Darkness.


Basil SantOine was overSensitive to
sound, as are most of the blind; In
the world of darkness in which he
lived, sounds were by far the most
significant-and almost the only
means he had of telling what went on
around him; he passed his life listen
ing for or determining the nature of
sounds. So the struggle which ended
in Eaton's crash to the floor would
have walked him without the pistol
shots Immediately following. That
reused him wide-awake Immediately
and brought him sitting up in bed, for
getful of his own condition.
His hand went at once to the bell
board, and he rang at the same time
for the nurse outside his door and
for the steward.
Santoine did not consider the DOS
sibility of robbery of plate or jewelry
long enough to have been said to con.
slider 1t at all what he felt was that
the threat which had been hanging
vaguely over himself ever since War
denis murder was being fulfilled. But
it was not Santoine himself that was
being attacked 1t was something San
tome possessed. There was only one
sort of valuable article for which one
might enter that room below. And
those articles
Santoine pressed all the bells again
and then got up. He had heard abso-
lutely no sound outside, as must be
made by anyone escaping from the
room below: but the battle seemed
over. one side must have destroyed
the other
The blind man stood barefooted on
the floor. his hands clasping in one of
the bitterest moments Of his rebellion
against, and defiance of, his helpless
ness of blindness. Below him-as he
believed-his servants had been sacri-
f1cing life for him; there in that room
he held in trust that which affected
the security, the faith, the honor Of
others; his guarding that trust in.
volved his honor no less. And partic-
ularly, now, he knew he was bound,
at whatever cost, to act; for he did
not doubt now but that his half-pris-
oned guest, whom Santoine had not
sufficiently guarded, was at the bot
tom of the attack. The blind man be
lieved, therefore that 1t was because
of his own retention here of Eaton
that the attack had been made. his
servants had been killed, the private
secrets of his associates were In dan
ger. Undoubtedly there was danger
below; but that was why he did not
call again at the other door for some
one else to run a risk for him.
He put his hand on the rail and
started to descend the stairs. He was
almost steady in step and he had firm
grasp on the rail; ne noticed that now
to wonder at 1t. When he had aroused
at the sound of firing, his blindness,
as always when something was hap
pening about him, was obtruded upon
him. He felt helpless because he was
blind, not because he had been in
jured. He had forgotten entirely
that for almost two weeks he had not
stirred from bed; he had risen and
stood and walked, without staggering,
to the door and to the top of the
stairs before, now, he remembered. So
what he already had done showed him
that he had merely again to put his
injury from his mind and he could
90 on. He went down the stairs al
most steadily.
The blind count stairs, and he had
gone down twenty-one- realized
fully his futllity; but now he would
not retreat or merely call for help.
"Who is here?" he asked distinctly.
"Is anyone here? Who is here?"
| No one answered. And now San
| tome knew by the sense which let him
| feel whether 1t was night or day, that
the room was really dark-dark for
| others as well as for himself; the
lights were not burning. So an exal-
tation, a sense Of physical capability,
came to Santoine; in the dark he was
as fit, as capable rs any other man.
He stepped down on the floor, and
in his uncertainty as to the position
Of the furniture, felt along the wall.
| There were bookcases there, but he
felt and passed along them swiftly,
until he came to the case which
concealed the safe at the left side of
s'iS uo"'S Ahe pVohS WeTc soHc lEom
that case; his bare toes struck against
them where they had been thrown
down on the floor. The blind man, his
pulse beating unanimously, put his
hand through the case and felt the
panel behind. That was slid back,
exposing the safe; and the door Of
the safe stood open. Santoine's
hands felt within the safe swiftly Tho
safe was empty.
He recolled from It, choking back
an ejaculation. The entry to this