The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1925-05-28

there vas Inc faint tremor OF fear as
if fear ice having taken abode In
this gloomy old residence, was not to
be evicted as ii indeed it chung when
all other personalities had gone just
as the odor of dead smoke remains
long after the living fire has grown
cold.
With q gesture of Impotence Peter
closed the door behind him and walked
toward the foot of the long, austere
flight of black walnut stairs. He could
see from his position the gray light
coming through barred windows into
the dining room where on the table
a beautiful Chippendale, strangely out
of place in the unpleasant, high stud
ded proportions of the room-there sat
a saucer with a spoon in 1t as if some
ghostly presence had just that moment
arisen from a lonely bowl of phantom
Cruel. The door nearer the front of
the house, the entrance no doubt TO
the library of Parmelee, was almost
closed; Peter glanced at it and as
cended the stairs.
A thin film Of dust covered every
thing. 1t was evidence of the care
takers belief that no one would quick
ly return to note his delinquencies.
Otherwise the house might have been
untouched from the moment when, in
a spirit of pursued flight, Brena had
shut the doors for the last time. A
novel had been put upon a table In
the upper hall, its pages spread down.
ward where a reader had left it in
Brena's own chamber the tray upon
the dressing table still contained scat
tered pins and a railroad conductors
receipt for a cash fare. In the bath
room a towel hung over the edge of
the tub as If a bather had just come
from the morning plunge and only. the
stripped beds spoke Of the vacancy of
the understanding rooms. To Peter,
the whole house except for that part
which she had occupied, seemed to be
filled with unpleasant ghosts of the
personalities that had lived in it. He
opened no door without the feeling
that one of these invisible beings had
just stepped out of the chamber from
another exit. The stairs up which he
had climbed were complaining gently,
as If feet were following his some
where there sounded the huttering of
soft wings-a startling noise, but ex-
planned by the dead chimney swallow
that lay below the sill of one of the
darkened windows-a tiny inert SYM
hol of fro oio innriSOnmont and daath
Peter had found nothing in his sur
vey of the house that could contribute
to his purpose; he had looked without
more reason for looking than a desire
to see where Brena had lived and to
confirm his belief that except in the
library that had been used by Parma
lee nothing could be found of any sig
nificance. 1t was not probable, he
thought, that he would open some door
to find the cotton brokers' whitening
corpse stretched out with the handle
of a murderer's knife still sticking up
from the collapsed ribs. He was about
to return to the lower floor when he
in front of him upon the bare
dusty vanished boards a distinct print
of a human foot. 1t vas a small, we'll
foot that had made this print
and the next beyond and the next
they stopped where the stair car
pet began.
There sprarg into his mind the glib
bering reference of Parmalee to foot
prints, followed Immediately by the
thought that these might be the record
of Brena's own steps and then as
quickly by the thought that Brena had
left long before this layer Of dust had
accumulated. He found himself listen
now, the victim for the moment of
fear, as If suddenly the c%ontagion had
reached him. At last he laughed. The
prints were not those of a man: they
might be those Of a but the
chances were overwhelmingly in favor
IF their being made by the c~aretaker's
5oung barefoot boy. Peter smiled again
md went down the stairs.
At the bottom of this flight above
he hall stand was an old carved Chi
lese frame holding a dusty mirror.
Peter glanced at this mirror, saw him
,elf, stopped. The expression on his
,wn face alarmed him. He imagined
hat he was less rudy, more gray of
;kin. that he had caught himself in
he unconscious pose of a man who in
-oluntarily has begun to walk softly
md look about alertly, that upon the
ace reflected in the glass was the
lrst faint expression of terror written
lot as ii is written upon the face of
man who is a coward before known
.angers, for Peter whatever he might
e could wear that look, but the
i'm suggestion of fear of unknown
angers and of subtle influences, that !
lay some day be engraved without re-
ard to the courage or will of the in
upon any sensitive human
o~untenance. !
Peter had IN unpleasant idea; it
as that his s~ubconscious self was en- :
.eavoring to transmit to his conscious