OCR Text |
Show i went on I turned about and looked agaiD j thotiult:. Aa burt as 1 eit here cow j Harding stood there. He seemed to be hack oi the wall a bit and leaning, us 1 told you. a trirle forward. The whole J scene wavered indistinctly an instant and (inn v.ent ou!. and 1 went clear up to ' the sale and touched the wall where lie j had blood. Alter that 1 came back and had not taken my eyes oil the spot until ' yuu came in. 1 expected him to appear a third time, and 1 was dreadfully al raid I nobody would bo litre to 6ee him with ' me. Ah! Look!" and Mr. Taggart leaned I away over the arm of his chair and strained his eyes at tho shadow, which was getting rapidly deeper, for the sun had set. 'You don't mean to say you se anything any-thing now, do your" wlmpered the lawyer. I "No no I was mistaken that time. I was mistaken mistaken. But not before; be-fore; no, sir, not before." "I am afraid you were, Taggart," Bait j the lawyer, gravely. "Let'B investigate hero and be convinced that you are mistaken." mis-taken." He went to the further side of o room and Taggart rose and leaned against a desk watching him. .Mr. Drake grasped the handJe of the safe door and tried to shake it, saying, as he did so, in a careless tone: "That 6eems to bo all right." Then ho passed his hand along the wall and thumped. "Ah!" he added, "you have a thin partition or a hoilow wall here." "It is acondemned chimney," said Mr. Taggart, whose agitation was increasing. "The department for the inspection of buildings sealed it up several months , ago. Wo used to have a fireplace there, and Harding hud it boarded over and papered to correspond with the rest of , the room." The lawer thumped again on the wall whhout any real object except to gain time lor thinking what to do next. He raised his left hand to a level with his head, and placed it against the wall, at the same time putting his foot upon a wall protector that projected from the , mopboaid. Before he had time to re-: re-: alize what he had done, he felt the par-: par-: tilion give under the pressure of his hand, , and the wall protector sink under his foot, and simultaneously a part of the ! wall swung open in front of him, diB-i diB-i closing nn upright, ghastly, emaciated j form. In the infinitesimal fraction of a ! second that it maintained its upright at-! at-! titudo he recognized the distorted fea-i fea-i tures of the missing Harding, and heard Taggart gasp, "Tho third timel" and be- fore he could move his hands the figure 1 fell 'face down to the floor. Ho turned to I see Taggart reel and sink lifeless under1 . the window. So great was his astonish-I astonish-I mcnt and horror that he stood for an in-! in-! staii t staring blankly from one prostrate j figure to the other. Then he turned to the opening in the walL He saw a closet i too narrow to permit of a man lying . j down in it. It was completely closed on ' I all Bides, except the one opened by the i ! door, whose combination lock he had ae- I j cideutall worked. On the floor were ! ! packages of paper and parcels that he at j once judged to be the $50,000 abstracted j ' from the safe. He rushed to Taggart, in i whom he sought to discover signs of life. I ; He raised his head and chafed his hands I anxiously. "I say, Drake, you owe me a dollar j and lil'tcen cents,' said a voice at the ; office door, "You forgot to pay vour I bill and 1 got tired of wait why, what's I the matter." It was the brother lawyer. ! "Run for a pitcher of water and get a 1 doctor if you can," was Mr. Drake's an-! an-! swer. When the lawyer returned with water Taggart had recovered consciousness and was sitting up on the floor, and Mr. Drake was saying: "It's all right, Taggart, old man; it's all clear now. Your money and securities securi-ties are all in tho secret closet that Harding Hard-ing had made to hide them in. He must have been at tho job when you came, and, having no time to complete it, shut himself in there without realizing that the door could be opened only from this side. The miserable fellow undoubtedly 6iilVocated and starved to death." "I told you 1 saw him," responded Taggart faintly. F. R. Burton in Th Bulletin. TAGGAIiT'S GHOST. "Ah," said Lawyer Drake as be dictated dic-tated the last word of a brief to his clerk. "1 think that will do. Have a I good copy early to-morrow. Hulloal I'm just too iaie to catch the 6 o'clock train. Guess I'll tako my dinner in the city." ! ilo rose and stretched his arms with a long drawn yawn. Then ho changed his coat, put on his hat und went out, leaving leav-ing the weury clerk transcribing his notes. After walking a few blocks down Broad v. ay he turned into a narrow ! street ncar Trinity. He was wondering what I'riendb he would meet at tho restaurant, res-taurant, when ho chanced to look across the street. At an open window in the second story sat a man with his hat tipped hack on his head his hands apparently ap-parently clasped in front of him. "Ilulloa, fuggaitl" exclaimed Mr. Drake, bowing and smiling. The man in the window smiled back faintly, hut said nothing. Ho looked inquiringly in-quiringly at the lawyer and gestured with both hands. Mr. Drake stopped ami asked, with a puzzled expression: "What is it?" Tho man in the window continued to gesture. Mr. Drake thought he meant to say by his beckoning that he wanted the lawyer to reserve a chair for him at the restaurant. "All right," called out the lawyer, and ho continued , his walk. But he did not see theexpres-1 theexpres-1 sion of pain and disappointment that came over that man's features, or hear ! tho suppressed "Great God!" that burst I from his pale lips. I Mr. Draku tipped up a chair at his side when he had selected a table and ordered ! hisdiuner. He invited a brother lawyer, ! who dropped in at the same time, to sit i at the table, saying: "Taggart will be here shortly." In two minutes they were , deeply interested in a discussion of the latest sensation of the courts. The waiter was about to serve dessert before they ! thought of Taggart again. "By Jove!" exclaimed Mr. Drake, "1 wonder where the man is? If you will excuse me a minute I will step across the street and see. I may havo mistaken i his meaning. He waved bis arms this , way and that, and 1 thought he meant , he would meet me here. Perhaps he wanted to havo mo come." When ho reached tho sidewalk he . looked up at the open window and saw j the man silting there as he had been at first, but now bis faco was turned away ! and he seemed to be looking to the further fur-ther corner of the room. Mr. Drake hurried up the stairs and opened the , door without ceremony. The man at the window sprung up with a start, and, rushing forward, seized tho lawyer's hands and gripped them hard. "Thank God, you've cornel" he exclaimed ex-claimed in a weak voice. "1 was afraid you did not understand me," "Well, I certainly did not, and do not now," answered the lawyer. "Why! what is tho matter you aro all of a tremble, and your hands are like ice?" "Como this way, Mr. Drake, to tho window where it is light, and 1 will tell you. That's it; Bit down there and lean see your face plainly." The trembling man's voice choked and he sank into a chair, covering his faco with his lianda. Tho lawyer looked at him anxiously. "Come, Taggart," he said, Boothingly, "there's nothing new wrong, is there? You've been brooding over that rascally partner of yours too much. Come, cornel that will bo ull cleared up in tune; don't worry." "Mr. Drake," said the other, unsteadily, unstead-ily, "I'm not a man to 5jreak down under un-der business cares. I havo brooded over my trouble somewhat, I admit, for when a man is played false by an associate, who has been his life long friend, it goes harder than tho loss of money and the temporary loss of confidence and credit. Ruin I can retrieve, but the wound made by my partner never can be healed. But thero is sometlung more. What it is I do not kuow; I dare not think." He turned his head and glanced furtively fur-tively at tho safe in the coiner of the room. Tho otlice was in its usual orderly or-derly condition, and Mr. Drake's keen eyes, following the fearful glance of his friend, could discern nothing in the shadow cast by the massive sale against the wall. "Go on, Taggart," he said, quietly; "what is il?" Mr. Taggart turned his pale face once more to the light, and, looking the lawyer straight in the eves, continued: 'lt is now twelve, days since my part- ! ner disappeared. You remember that 1 came to I ho ollice unusually early on that morning, and found tho safe open and all the cash and securities gone, Harding and 1 were the only men in the world who knew that combination. The safe had not been tampered with; tho proper combination had been worked, that was clear. You know I refused to believe that anything was wrong. I tried to persuade myself that Harding had been nervous about llio money, some $d0,0Uu that had been received the day before too late for deposit; 1 said that Harding had como down early, as 1 did, with the idea of seeing that the money was deposited as soon as the banks should open. I thought his nervousness had caused him to forget to lock the safo again. But all the easily con vortible se curitics were gone, too. Wolf, 1 stayed here all day wailing for him lo return. The next day his own family put detectives detec-tives on the case. Not a sign of him has been found, lie was traced from his house on that morning to this ollice, and there every clew vanishes. Strange, was it not? j : "Since that timo I have been in tho I office throughout every day, and havo remained until long after business hours, ' as I did to-night, I cannot say why I ' have done this; it seems, somehow, as if i Harding would turn up, and I 1 thought j i he might not crime unless 1 was ulone. Mr. Drake, Harding has appeared." I Mr. Taggart shuddered violently and then covered his face with his ha mis. j His agitation began to tell ou the lawyer, law-yer, who nevertheless inquired with a I (show of calmness, "Well, Taggart, how . . Was itr" "It was about ten minutes before you j came along," said Taggart, huskily. "1 i had been bitting hero brooding for more i than nn hour Almost all that time had leen looking at the sate. Still thinking think-ing deeply and wondering what had Income In-come of Harding, I tinned my head to ward the street. I looked out absently. did not notice what was U'fore me. and in a few seconds turned my head again toward the safe. Oh, lio.II Right there in the shadow Mood a man. haggard, pale, terribly emaciated, in such an attitude that it seemed as if he must totter and tail forward. I would have thought it was some decrepit U-ggar who had entered stealthily had I not recognized unerringly unerr-ingly my partner's features. 'Harding' 1 cried, starting up, ami l hen Cod help uie, Drake! he was not there!" "Oh. come, Tuscan." exchimnd the lawyer, hasiily his hlood chilling m . spile of himself at his friend's dramatic recital, "I told you you had leen thinking think-ing too much of this matter." "Stop, Drake," interrupted TagcrarT: "that is not all. 1 sank back in ray chair, not knowing what lo do or think. I wan altsolutely certain of the testimony of my own eyes, and yet 1 doubted. I knew ; what 1 bail seen, but what was the sig-i sig-i nilieanee ol it? I dared not look again until I could reason myself out of the ! tremendous excitement that stirred me. '. Just then you passed. I tried to calf" out ' to vou, but, in spite of everything, 1 , coiifd not opt1 n my mouth. I wanted you ' to come up at onco. for. to tell the truth, I I think 1 was frightened. Alter you |