Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-06
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sandstone cliff. The beach curved and
l followed its arc at top speed, coming
to the mouth of The Gut, where stood,
orenched with spray and deafened with
sound. Kissing water and an un- Gala
bic cliff guarded this side OF The Gut.
Coming back, I threw my light along
the letty. into the boat house. and over
the Parados cruiser and the police boot,
Lhen along the cement breakwater
ParadoS had built halfway across the
mouth of the cove.
shoulder Of rock jutted into the
surf at the northwest corner of the
cove. 1t took me 10 minutes to get
around 1t to the west beach. Once 1
thought was trapped The water was
up to my waist. then to my shoulders
1t swept me of my feet and hurled
me against the cliff. The water re-
coded and staggered through.
My head throbbed and after I had
touched 1t I found blood on my hand.
The wound did not appear to be deep,
however, and I started down the beach.
fortunately the torch was not broken.
Turning, raced back along the
beach, playing the light beam upon the
race of the cliff with a view to dis.
covering trail that would take me to
the top.
The trail proved sleeper than I had
expected and halfway up / had Ia
stop, or I would have fallen from ex-
naustion. was losing more blood
than had supposed.
was on the point of starting I'm
again when a beam Of light, evidently
from an electric torch, shot out over
the top OF the cliff in a horizontal d.
rection little to the right of me.
IL vanished, reappeared, vanished;
again 1t reappeared and vanished. Each
I
larity Of signal
So far as knew everybody had left
the mouse. The women might have re-
turned. but II they had I could con-
celVe OF no reason why they should sig
nal out to sea. Inland, or to me OF,
the beach-that would have been un-
derstandable
1t looks queer" I muttered.
:, AS pulled myself over the edge of
once. hundred yards south Of
where I stood was the house. The
light had seemed to come from the
parapeted roof. This time caught
an answering CLEAN somewhat south
OF the house and not far offshore.
My flrst impulse was to approach
the roof by way Of the outside stair,
but 1 quickly suppressed 1t. wanted
TO see the signaler before he saw me-
Skirting the cypress trees, I made
my way to the northwest corner Of
the house and to the rear door, where
I had left my shoes. The door was
atar. entered, glided across the
kitchen to the hall and arrived noise
lessly at the foot of the stair.
Here I paused and listened. The
hall and most of the lower rooms were
lighted. I saw no one and heard
nothing. Nevertheless knew that
| Inr1 N f6a NJ Al
sent me up the stair like a shadow.
AT the top I paused once more. Caro-
lines room was lighted and the door
was ajar. I slipped across the cor
ridor and looked into the room. It
was empty.
My own room was next and I had
stopped in front of it when my eyes
were drawn to the door at the end
Of the corridor. 1t fascinated me-be-
cause the bodies of Parados and
Granger were behind it, perhaps. At
any rate, found myself moving
toward It,
My throat was dry. I felt as If I
were moving through tomb peopled
with the living. The door was not
locked. 1t gave slowly, noiselessly,. be-
fore my pressure. The room was dark.
Nothing happened for q momen; ]
heard no sound. Then my face sud-
denly was ringed in light. My own
torch was still in my left hand, but ]
had forgotten 1t and my fingers released
the switch without the consent Of my
will.
It parried the FIRST beam and cut a
second circle out Of the darkness. Into
the second circle 1eaped a face that
was Of neither the living nor the dead.
A scream rang through the room.
"Allanl"
The face had 1eaped at me. Some
thing fell on my head and dropped.
Continued Tomorrow