The Waterbury Democrat., 1935-04-02

sight than the headlights of tho automobile sent twin pencils O. white brilliance against the hedge They swung past Milicent. then swept back and came to q stop. Millicent had already under gone terrific ordeal. Now crouching there with the white light boring into the hedge and binding her vision. she felt that she had endured more than was humanly possible. She wanted to rise up from behind the hedge, throw up her hands and scream. All right, here I am. Go ahead and convict me of murder if you want to-"
 It seemed inevitable that the driver of the car had discover ed her and was deliberately tortur- ing her as a cat tortures a mouse. By an effort, Millicent held her self motionless.
 A moment later she heard the sound of the garage door sliding back. Then, after a moment. the merciless white glare of the head lights was removed from her face, and she heard the car move into the garage. Then the door once more slammed shut.
 Millicent was trembling from head to foot. Had the driver of the car sen her? Had the head lights been left fastened upon her purposely so that she might real ize her hiding place had been dis covered? Or had 1t been merely one of those coincidences which happen so frequently in every day life? She knew that the driver of the car had. of necessity. left the car in order to unlock the door of the garage. It was. of course. possible that the car had acci- dentally been left in such n position that the headlights wore boring into the hedge at the exact spot where Millicent had chosen to hide. Even so. there was q strong possibility that the driver of the automobile had seen her crouch ing there.
 Millicent waited about 15 min utes before she dared to approach the front door of the house. The rain had ceased now, but low, black clouds were drifting rapidly across the sky, twisting and writh- ing on tho wings of Q wind which was momentarily increasing in vio- lence in the higher regions, all though 1t still blew only in gusts on the ground.
 Millicent tip-toed up the stairs to the porch. took out the key container and fitted keys one after another to the front door. The fourth key slid the bolt back smoothly.
 Milliccnt gave sigh of relief slipped into the corridor. closed the door behind her, took off her shoes and ran swiftly and silently up the stairs to her room. She took the key to her room from her pocket, opened the door. slipped Inside. but did not switch on the lights. She closed and locked the door, then stood listening, trying to hear any sounds which might indicate her nocturnal excursion had attracted attention.
 She heard nothing.
 There was the first gray touch of dawn in the air. and Millicent. sliding wearily' out of her wet clothes, bothered only to hang up her fur coat. Her other garments she let lie across the back of n chair Then she crawled into bed
 Physical fatigue wrestled with the nervousness which caused her A. A.. fxn t.A the events of the past two days.
 Suddenly she thought of the suitcase of books on which she was to work. She decided that she would put them in the closet and lock the csoset door.
 Milllcent jumped from bed crossed tho room. turned on tho lights and bent over the suit case.
 Abruptly she stiffened Into rigid