The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-10-06
TheAmateur Gentleman
y Jeffrey FarnoI

I clenching his teeth, he crept for
ward, guiding himself by the wall;
yet as he went, above the shuttle
Of his feet. above the rustic Of his
cloak against the panelling. he could
hear the tick of the clock-ever
/ louder, ever more insistent:
"Go-backl Go-backl"
He reached the stairs at last and,
cropping for the banister, began to
ascend slowly and cautiously, often
pausing to listen. On he went and
up, past the wizen-faced clock, and
so reached the upper hall at the
further end Of which was the dim
light that shone from behind a
half-closed door.
Being come to the door, Barnabas
lifted his hand TO knock, yet stood
again hestitating. his chin on bis
shoulder, his eyes searching the
darkness behind him, whence came
the slow. solemn ticking of the
clock:
Comeback! Comeback!
For long moment he stood thus,
then, quick and sudden, he threw
vide open the door and stepped into
the room.
A candle fared and guttered
upon the mantel, and by this flick
ering light he saw an overturned
chair, and, beyond that, litter of
scattered papers and documents
and, beyond that again Jasper
Gaunt seated at his desk in the cor
ner. He was lolling back in his
chair like one asleep. and yet-was
this sleep?
Something in his attitude, some
thing in the appalling stiffness of
that lolling figure, something in the
utter quiet of the whole place, filled
BarnabaS with a namelesS, growing
horror.
He took a step nearer, another,
and another-then stopped and, ut
tering a choking gasp, fell back to
the wall and leaned there suddenly
faint and sick. For, indeed, this was
more than sleep. Jasper Gaun
lolled there, a horrid, bedabbled
thing, with his head at a hideous
angle, and the dagger, which had
been wont to glitter so evilly from
the wall, smitten sideways through
his throat.
DARNABAS crouched against
ID the wall, his gaze riveted by
the dull CLEAN of the steel; and
upon the silence, now, there crept
another sound soft and regular, a
small dull, splashing sound; and,
knowing what it was, he closed his
eyes and the faintneSs grew upon
him. At length he sighed and,
shuddering, lifted his head and
moved backward step toward the
door; thus it was he CHANGED to see
Jasper Gaunt's right hand-that
white, carefully-tended right hand,
whose long, smooth fingers had
clenched themselves even tighter in
death than they had done in life.
And, in their rigid grasp was
something that struck Barnabas
motionless; that brought him back
slowly, slowly across that awful
room to sink upon one knee above
that pale, clenched hand, while,
sweating, shuddering with loathing,
he forced open those stiffening
fingers and drew from their dead
clutch something that he stared at
with dilating eyes, and with white
lips suddenly compressed, ere he
hid it away in his pocket.
Then, shivering, he arose and
backed away, feeling behind him
for the door, and so passed out into
the passage and down the stairs,
but always with his pale face
turned toward the dim-lit roRl
where Jasper Gaunt lolled in his
chair. a bedabbled, wide-eyed thing
Of horror, staring up at the dingy
ceiling.
Thus, moving ever backwards,
Barnabas came to the front door,
felt for the catch, but, with his
hand upon it, paused once more to
listen; yet heard only the thick
beating of his own heart, and the
loud, deliberate ticking of the
wizen-faced clock upon the stairs.
ITO Be Continued