Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-21
The Door of Death
By John Esteem
coD'h ' North AS:;s..s Alliance
By John Esteven


turning my head with an effort to re-
assure myself, ! saw Is piece OF white
paper on the table. and thought sirank
as from lash =
Eleanori ~
And I understood now. Rather than
Balloon, 1t was she, unmasked. seen In
her final colors. who had laid the snare,
led me on. She who doubtless, some-.
where in the silent house, sat waiting.
The call I intended was never uttered.
Numbness of body became that Of soul.
1t was as If saw her hands present.
In. the glass Of wine. her white, p1t1less
hands. It was as If felt her doom
upon me and accepted 1t mutely as one
who has lost whatever gave life q pur-
pose.
So all the time this had been the
truth that lurked in the shadows OF
Greenhouse, a part Of that spirit haunt.
ing here. Whether she acted IN chief
or as accomplice OF another made no
sovereign even now, superb, beyond good
and evil, exalted in herself And
thought, If / could but see her again.
one glimpse of her through this rising
darkness, ray to clear the mind once
more, that then had forgot
ten, forgotten thought 1t was too
weary a matter to resist the weight and
urge Of what bore me down. Better TO
sleep, to yield. Reality became dream.
Curiously enough, however, re-
manned conscious of my whereabouts,
knew that I was sitting before the
hearth and that to breathe was difh-
cult, but the knowledge as to why !
sat there and the sense of my pre-
dicament had passed. In the time
lessness of a dream I merely knew that
I was here, beset by q dim foreboding
and in that eerie remembrance OF light
that accompanies dreams.
Then I became gradually aware OF
something. felt that was no longer
alone; that in the chair next me. wide
and deep as mine, some one was seated
Some one. Forcing glance, could see
nothing, and yet knew. In the chill
of suspense breath came slow; !
seemed to have grown rigid; the min
utes dragged by. I strove to keep my
look averted from the chair, which con-
tinued to draw it back.
Then, gazing in spite Of myself, ]
saw all at once, raised from within,
hand grasping the chair arm. A hand
of long white fingers, now spread out.
now closing restlessly, and on one OF
them was q ring set with large sap
phire. p
co not know why hand should
have instilled such horror, the sense
of loneliness, or deadly silence, of help
lessness. It recalled in its slow move
ment the leisure Of cat unsheath1ns
its claws, tense but deliberate. And
my dread fro2e at what I knew would
follow.
The hand ceased its movement.
gripped the chair; something stirred
beheld a face thrust from the DARK
ness. There followed blindness, as at
the cutting OF of light, but not before I
had recognized that face or knew who
it was that had risen and stood near.
I heard a low, harsh laugh. A breath
fell like the heavy vapor of dank earth
Thus I sat blind. spellbound with
fear, beneath the form that was bend
ing down. GaSping, awaited, as
last throb, the cropping Of those hands
upon me, and knew that 1t meant death.
For was not the one who stood there
dead? Was it not the hands Of a
corpse about my throat that awaited?
Meanwhile, words came, words num-
bled in whisper near me, building
slow meaning: They opened door, a
door that let him in. Said J. not true!
He is hungry still; he will not leave
the hunt. They laughed, they would
not heed"
Blind, to die blind, with this specter
Of the grave my only watcher! Was it
his hands funabling above my hearth
Was It his voice that muttered, '.No-in-
SUFFICIENT" and again, mo, say
waltz"
Blackness melted into blackness. The
vision changed. saw him standing at
the foot of the great stairs, which had
become of marble, his head carried
high, as had seen him once, his hawk
face undaunted; and downward, coming
III,
slight, whose hand seemed to hover,
along the balustrade. She did not
shrink from him who waited. It was
all ages ago, knew-the black CLOAK
flung around her, the flare of torch.
But fear had gone-it was the world Ut
death.
And then followed vacancy.
have always believed that the poison
used was a solution of cannabis indica
combined with some other drug. Ger
tainly the dream-haunted stupor points
to an intensified form of hashish. But
that was saved at all-and, indeed,
no one could have been nearer death
was due simply to my having left the
glass half finished. Some hours later
/ found myself staring into the black
ened fireplace, with the confused sense.
of having been awakened, but I WIS
dizzy, exhausted, trembling in every
muscle. The lights were still burning
though one felt the approach OF dawn.
Little by little detached ideas pieced
themselves into memory. though ragged
and incomplete. I recalled my dinner
with Morse, but, for a time. nothing
more. could not imagine how I came
to be seated here in this miserable
condition, nor could tell at first where
I was. Then there required an image
Of a car with flaming headlights back
ing from a lighted door, together with
q sense of rain and darkness. My eyes,
throbbing painfully, concentrated on
the stone mantelpiece with its carved
escutcheon. Where hau I dreamed OF
1t? Why should it seem familiar? An,
Of course-GreyhouSe; but why alone
/ before the f1reless hearth? 1t was cold
in the hall; remembered it was that
which had awakened me. CHANGING at
INV watch. saw that the hour was half
past 5. .
Then slowly, like separate pools OF
water Joined together by q returning
tide. a sequence Of thought began to re-
establish itself crumbling enabers,
pleasant reveries. an intolerable fear,
impossible dreams. I looked appre-
hensively at the chair near me. and saw.
it was vacant-at the little table on my
right, and noticed piece Of white pa
per. It was this that gave the final
cue. Like a released spring, the sep
arate details locked together: the glass
of wine. numbness of limbs, realization
of the poison. Eleanor!
In the blank recognition Of what she
had attempted. felt no particular
thankfulnesS that the attempt had
failed. The future stretched out before
me Indifferent. Anger, desire to punish,
even interest as to what her motives
had been, were alike absent. They were
all broken victuals of an abandoned
tsble. What mattered now, inasmuch
as continued to live, was to drag N.Y.
self to NV room take a stinnulant and