Evening star., 1935-05-20
ENEMY'S8 8{2;>|:2lKISS 4f;z &z:z
CHAPTER 1.
THE HAIRLESS Skull

A LISON REDE, brushing her
~ teeth in very cold water,
~ raised her head from the
4 \ basin to listen. Night. in an
empty house, is always liable
to produce strange and alarming
sounds, but surely that had been a
footstep? 1t must be her father at
last!
Her mouth was full of pink soap
favored with areca nut, SO she could
not call out, but the flooding sense of
sheer relief was wonderful never had
she been through such nerve-shak-
ing experience.
For her father, usually so careful
Of her comfort. to change his plans
by telegram at the last minute was
bad enough. True, he had written to
her that he was leaving London and
was looking for country place, yet
1t was totally unlike him to ask Alison
to meet him at this lonely house at
II at night, still more so to add, IF
I am late, wait there for me-" for
Robert Rede was the most precise and
punctual of men, and he had always
come to fetch her at Dover.
But If the telegram seemed odd,
her arrival at this new home had
been worse. The hired car which had
brought her here from Warley Station
was already halfway down the road
before Alison had realized that the
bell produced no answer Cropping
her way to the back, she had grasped
at last that the whole place was dark
and empty.
Tired, cold. very wet and rather
frightened, her first instinct had been
to try and find some cottage nearby
But it was late; no friendly light
showed anywhere along the dark
road; her fathers telegram had been
explicit-"wait there for me"-and if
she went exploring she might miss
him when he arrived.
At 10 minutes to IL on a pouring
wet Autumn night, it seemed silly to
attempt to walk a matter of six miles
back to the station. Soaked and
shlvering, she had waited for 10
minutes in an open porch that gave
her no protection from the driving
rain. Then, with the aid of her pocket
torch, she had managed to find win
dow ajar, and, with some difficulty,
got herself and her small attache case
through it into the pantry.
But, thankful as she was to be un-
der shelter. hurried search of the
house had failed to discover the main
switch of the electric light.
BY the pale beam of her small torch
the empty house seemed strange and
eerie. Waiting, expecting every mo-
ment to hear her fathers car arrive,
she had tried to keep her spirits up
and to pretend that the whole affair
was a vast joke.
To fill in time, she had unpacked
her brush and sponge bag and had
started to wash off some of the cling
ing dirt of Swiss and French trains.
But now, rinSing her mouth, she
could afford to admit that she had
been scared!
Creak
With the glass still in her hand.
Alison stiffened. The muscles of her
throat grew tight as she stood mo-
tionless, listening.
Some one was coming up the stairs
outside the bath room. but-that was
not her fathers brisk, short, rather
ierky tread
Slow steps, stealthy. with a marked
pause between each, as though the
person outside was afraid of being
heard =.
Creak! Then a rattle and a faint,
sharp squeak
The girl stared into the looking
glass above tn basin, stared across
her own shoulder, unable to move,
paraylzed with fear.
The door was opening!
Then she saw.
Her mouth stretched wide to scream
as she spun around, but no sound
came but dull click far back in her
throat. At the same instant she
flung herself bodily against the door.
There was no key; she herself had
seen all the house keys hanging, tied
with string. on hook in the pantry;
left hanging there, no doubt, by the
last tenants. There was no furniture
in the small tiled bath room except a
light stool, and Alison, although tall,
was very slight.
She was shaking so much that the
door ratified as she pushed herself
against it, and she felt appallingly
sick She found herself wondering
whether she cni1d on an holJ;po ~