Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-03

TINE deputy left by Seth Toby Il
guard the house had had hi.
dinner and was established il
A the most comfortable chair ir
the living room when Miss West
entered. He seemed disposed to enter
tain her with condolences concerning
the Incompetence of certain Hales
Crossing officials, but she fed to the
sanctuary Of the back kitchen
At 10 O'Clock Abby fixed a pot of
coffee and some sandwiches for their
protector When the repaSt had been
set before him the two women an
nounced that they were about to retire
to the floor above.
Make yourself at home" urged Miss
West with doubtful hospitality. "All I
hope is that you won't be needed in
your official capacity" The man had
gun; not the automatic of fiction,
but riot gun, its trigger cooked, ready
for emergency.
You go to sleep, miss, and don't be
s-scared of nuthin'. I promise to shoot
at the first sound of foot stirrin. And
allus shoots to kill"
Better wait for the second sound, :"
she advised. This is no ordinary
man hunt we're embarked upon. Your
bullet might go clean through the thing
you're aiming at and hit the wrong
person. A ghost is so porous, you
know"
She moved toward the door. closely
followed by Abby. IF you want any
thing, there's the bell pull. 1t rings
in the upper hall. And, oh, by the
way. should you feel you have to shoot,
don't point that cannon of yours up
in the air. I sleep right over your
head"
When Miss West said sleep she was
taking liberties with the word. It was
almost 46 hours now since her eye
lids had closed for any appreciate
length of time. The habit of sleep had
gone from them; and, even with the
comfortable assurance that an able
bodied man was seated in the room
below-a man placed there on purpose
to do the keeping awake for her-no
amount of coaXing could WOO it back.
Just as the combined weight of sleep
lessness and darkness had grown almost
too heavy to be borne the tired body
relaxed. Eyelashes quivered, dropped,
quivered again, settled into place. For
5 minutes, 10, 20, sleep gave temporary
relief to the exhausted brain. But be-
fore the sleep had become deep enough
to do any good a violent contortion of
the muscles almost lifted her from the
bed, and there she was awake once
more-awake and trembling. Had some
thing moved in the room? Had hand
touched her face? She flung the bed
clothes from her and sat up.
In her search for matches and a
candle, a tumbler of water got itself
tipped over and wet her to the skin.
But no one seemed to hear the racket
she made opening bureau drawers in
search of another nightdress. And this
was doubly strange when one came to
remember the man in the room below
Shivering, she blew out the candle
and placed 1t on the stand between the
two windows, where it would be within
reach of her hand. AS she turned to
crawl back into bed the cloud bank
which had brought the darkness slid
away and the south pasture lay re-
Vealed.
On the knoll near the graveyard will
lows stood Dracula, head up, tail switch
ing gently back and forth-a sure sign
something more than ordinary had oc-
CURED TO arouse his temper.
Miss West began to ask herself what
the stallion was doing there, out OF his
box stall, free and foot-loose.
Her answer was not long in coming.
From the side door Of the red barn
emerged a mana tall, broad-shoul-
dered fellow, as physically potent as the
horse he so obviously meant to master.
Otto's night-rider! Snatching pair of
field glasses from the drawer Of the
nlsnL SJand, the SIIl tOOk BoOu lOOh
at the approaching figure.
The glasses revealed that the man
was young. that he was dressed in
khaki trousers and a torn flannel shirt
and that he was handsome. Though
how she knew this last it would have
been dificult to say-the top OF a dark
curly head being all that was available
for inspection.
Over his right arm hung q bride
ouch as one would use for turn around
the park-an ornamental affair, 1T only
for a city-broke nag.
The daughter Of Cyrus West tried TO
be angry and only succeeded in grow
ing breathless Her heart leaped now
as she watched the cool, unhesitattng
way in which the stranger bore down
upon the raging Dracula. This man was
familiar with horses. He would know
how 10 handle the stallion, had dis