The Daily Alaska empire., 1930-02-24
Chapter 19
THE TABLES TURNED

mctionless in the darkness.
 She heard Batty Roses footsteps racing away on the other side of the closed. door And then im- pulsively she flung the door open, stepped forward and then heard him clattering down the back stairs
 She moved back into the hall. The bare floors were like sounding boards. There was no way of head ing off Batty, though instinctiyely she started back along the hall to- ward the head of the front stairs that led to the basement.
 She heard him wrench open the basement door to the street, heard it bang as it was precipitately shut again-and then silence.
 She was alone in the house, ex- cept-except for-she choked back a sudden sob in her tlToat---except for Phil Martin. That door had probably never been locked at all! She had been neatly tricked And now he was gone-obviously for only one purpose to communicate with Izzy Myers, or the Big Shot, CT some other members of the gang.
 How long would it be before some of them were back, enough of them-who wouldn't be unarmed mot only to prevent Phil Martin from escaping, but to trap her as well?
 "Phil!' she cried cut wildly, "Phill" His name came spontsne- ously to her lips. "Phill Where are you?"
 There was no answer She would have to find him. light the can ale again and find him.
 But she had no matches. There must be some somewhere, though That ledge where Batty Rose kept the candle-there should be match G therel She groped her way hack along the hall. Her fingers searched the ledge, anxiously, carefully, inch by inch. There were no matches there.
 For a moment her heart sank, and a low cry of despair broke from her lips as she set the now useless candle down on the ledge, She did not know where else to look. Batty Rose must have taken the match he had used from his own pocket-there were none here. What was she to do? Even with light to aid in her search for Phil she was not sure she could win her race against time, but in this pitiless blackness where shc could only grope forward blindly every foot of the way, where she could not even come upon the doors to the rooms except through sense of touch, it seemed as though all hope of success vas ruthlessly mefcllessly swept away. Dismay surged upon her--then fear, and agony of it. What was she to do2
 eTry, you little coward" an in- ner voice prompted contemptaousiy "Youll never find him by stand ing there! Try! Suppose there are a dczen rooms in the house, how do you know you wouldn't have the luck to find him in the very first one you entered? Tryl"
 It was like a whiplash, that voice. It spurred her on. She was in in stant action.
 She began to run-with her hand rubbing along the side of the wall. What did it matter If she fell? She must go quickly
 There was no time to go any other way, for there were too many rooms to search. There was this floor here, and the one be- low, and-she remembered having seen that there was an upper story when she had inspected the house from the cutside-and the ont above.
 Phil might be on any one of tn' three floors-she had nothing t' guide her in that respect. Sh' could only begin with the ITS room she came to, and there afte take them in turn as long as sh' had time, or-until she found Pm Her hand would tell her when sn came to a door and
 Here was one nowl She halted and her fingers, feeling along tn edge of the door near the Jan sought and found the door knot She swung the door wide open and in sudden uplift, gave littl cry of relief. It wasn't to De hopeless after all.
 Each room wouldn't have to D searched by sense of touch. would have taken such endless tim to do that, and that was whs she had been so much afraid o True, it was still dark and murk' but she could at least see that n one was lying bound there upo