The Daily Alaska empire., 1933-06-20
Chapter 31
EYES IN THE DARK


 IT WAS as if some ghost had taken A fancy to haunt my footsteps disturbed possibly by my intrusion into his rightful domain, for If ever a place looked haunted it was that rambling old hotel.
 And then 1 felt a presence more definitely. And I'd no sooner real lzed 1t than, out of the tail of my eyes, I caught a sort of movement on the lower gallery.
 It was only flicker. and it was gone, though I leaned far out to look.
 Yet, Madame Grethe. Mrs. Byng, and Sue were still in the parlor. and 1 took the pains to walk to the ele- vator shaft whence 1 had a view of a part of the lobby and could see Lovschiem still bending over his desk. could not. however. see be- yond the door to the bar, so the only alternative was the suspicion that Father Robart was my ghostly companion.
 had become. by that time, very circumspect in my actions. and ] took greater caution about opening doors into supposedly empty rooms and was careful not to outline my. self against any windows. thus pro viding a target.
 Had 1 needed warning, which ] did not. the silent, dark little eleva- tor hanging there at the ground floor would have supplied it.
 But. as say, l was little wiser. and the one definite clue-which l was not. as matter of fact. at all certain was actually clue-was as lmpalpable and ghostly as was the feeling of menacing presence stalking the dlm-stretching corri- dors with me. just out of my sight and reach.
 found 1t when I visited the two rooms. thirty-four and thirty-five; from the window of one of the two 1 had caught that wild glimpse of a haggard and terrible face. The face which refused to believe was Sue. which she herself unwittingly de. nied. and which still was so like so terribly like her face, with the square-cut hair framing 1t. page like.
 Neither of the rooms appeared to have been occupied for some time. They were both cold and unaired and musty. It was only accident that took my way across the heavy carpet of the latter. and go ing to the window, pulled back its curtain and squinted in an effort to see through the slits in the shutters in order to discover just how much of the second-f1oor corridor. direct. ly opposite and across the court, the watchers gaze could have en. compassed.
 realized at once that couldn't see through the shutters satisfac- torily and was reaching out my hand to pull back the doors of the window and properly unlatch the shutter when my hand arrested it. self in the very act.
 The shining glass was cold: the shutters behind 1t dark. My breath against the glass bad misted a small patch. and in that little patch suddenly 1 saw very clearly the whorled imprint of fngertips. Four of them and thumb.
 They were very clear. sharply definite. They were spread as if the hand had pressed heavily against the glass. And they were small and slender. No mans hand had made them. FIVE small fingerprints. The ques tion was. When had they beer made? And. more urgently. Who had made them?
 The possible significance of the little prints-prints that with { breath and touch of my cuff could everlastingly destroy-drev my attention from my surround ings.
 Fortunately the door creaked I've often wondered what nigh have happened If it had not creaked Things might have been very differ ent. But it was old and hadn't be, opened and closed much in its las years. and the hinge creaked.
 I'm sure saw the door mo"c I'm sure caught the glint of a mov ing high.light in that darkiss rt'n, Then flung toward il. r...."ah open. and was in ihe corSsitl
 There was. hawe"or, re.s." ., d dtv,rtr tf