Show by CLIFFORD S RAYMOND illustrated by IRWIN MYERS CHAPTER XI 11 continued 14 lie was turning out the lights he was reversing the reasonable process lie went down the hall to tho light at the stairway leading to alg room and turned it out then he came back past the recess in which I 1 stood tu cinc out lights as lie went and the last light he extinguished was the one at the foot of sir kidneys Sid stair biow the hall was in complete darkness and was quiet jed like myself I 1 guessed was in hiding but for what reason then I 1 beard the faintest stirring near bi it came nearer I 1 tried to keep from breathing audibly I 1 could hear another persons breathing it was jed beyond doubt lie came into the recess where I 1 stood it was only five or six feet deep but fully twenty feet long he was at one end as nearly as I 1 could judge I 1 was at the other the situation a product of alca had grown ridiculous and also a bit ghastly here were jed and I 1 standing in utter darkness in a small recess in the hall he not knowing of roy presence I 1 not knowing his purpose I 1 decided to make ray escape I 1 had as usual my electric flash in my pocket if he heard me and challenged me I 1 could throw the light on him challenge him and say that I 1 was on my ft ay to the telephone to consult doctor brownell and make him explain ills position was the awkward one I 1 had an idea that even if tie heard me he would not challenge I 1 made my escape without noise or if I 1 made any jed did not inquire and I 1 found the office door in the dark I 1 intended merely to use the flash find the telephone and do my errand in he dark but I 1 had just flashed the haht once about the roam when I 1 heard a person at the door this was cot a stealthy person the hand that touched the doorknob was resolute by this time nothing rational seemed reasonable the house of mystery had so asserted itself that one hearing a noise hid before me revealed in the single flash of light was a tall clock and I 1 was flattened against the wall the farther side of that great clock before the person at the door was in the room the person carried a candle and it was mr sidney lie was completely dressed and wore an overcoat and a cap which came down over his ears ills hands were gloved and he was well protected against more severe weather than that of this crisp october night ills candle lighted the large room but dimly and I 1 felt secure seeing immediately that he had a definite object lie went to the corner of the room took up a heavy cane which I 1 tod often seen standing there and with it in his hand went toward the door as if his business in the room were wholly done As he did so I 1 saw hla face plainly in the candle light it was wholly changed it indicated ferocity ante malevolence a bitter sense of injury terrible face hardly recognizable as that of the gentle courteous jovial mr sidney he closed the door and was gone when mr sidney had been gone a I 1 heard him open the front door and heard him close it after him I 1 should have followed him to the I 1 saw his face plainly in the candle light front door but jed was somewhere in the ball I 1 waited at the half epou floor of the domce presently I 1 could bear jed coming down the hall carelessly now lie also went to the front door and I 1 heard it opened and closed anto I 1 went to a window of the olace which gave a view of the lawn I 1 could fee one figure slowly crossing the open space toward the path load ng down to tie aher jed was just outside the shadow of floe bouse the farther figure mr sidney as I 1 knew passed into the dense black of the thickets by the path then jed stepped forth and went quickly across the open I 1 went to the front entrance and stood on the porch the hunters moon was at full and the place was luminous in a soft misty yellow light I 1 had tremors frankly felt the pres ence of tangible dangers unseen and of intangible terrors I 1 never felt such oppression doubt distress and dismay in my life my patient was on a str inge errand far beyond any strength I 1 ever knew him to have and jed whom I 1 always dreaded was following him it may be wondered why I 1 was not instantly in chase and why I 1 stood worried and indecisive the only explanation Is that I 1 knew as surely as one could know anything by reason and conjecture that whatever was happening that night had happened this same night for a number of years in the past and that whatever it was it had direct connection with the secret of the place which mrs sidney so earnestly desired me not to possess for these reasons or upon this instinct I 1 acted as I 1 did and stood or the porch listening to the rally late and looking out toward the dark woods and thickets which stood at the edge of the yellow moonlight the tension was so great that I 1 got a distinct shock when out of this wall of darkness came a figure running into and across the moonlit space to vard the house I 1 knew it must be jed and I 1 waited where I 1 stood as he approached he birely bad come into the shadow of the house when another figure came out of the dark wall of the thickets and came slowly across the moonlit space jed running up the steps saw me and gasped with astonishment but re covered himself with wonderful promptness inside man inside and act natu ral he cried come taking my arm in the office he was so certain and so command tag that I 1 did just what I 1 was told into the office man he said still clutching me what are you doing abroad this night of all nights 1 but no matter into the office and turn on the lights turn on the lights in the hall not all of them but some of them lie ran to do it himself and was all flutter and activity then be ordered into the office now and act natural you re a man of genius think of something we could naturally be doing at this time think quick man its beyond me what are you doing here good lord what are you doing here I 1 could have managed it without you why did you have to be on the scene and I 1 can think of nothing 1 you have severe tramps in the stomach I 1 said its not to be won dered at considering the way sou abuse sour stomach I 1 may say you are the only human being I 1 ever was glad to see drinking himself to death you have now some premonitory symptoms of gastritis you have got me up it I 1 do not have a collar and tie on it will look more natural I 1 tossed these articles and my coat behind a couch and possibly it you were less clad it would help the illusion jed rid himself of collar tie and coat and disposed of them in the same fashion now I 1 imagine I 1 said we are reasonably convincing as physician and sinner what are your symptoms youre a man of genius 1 jed exclaimed walt a minute he ran to the window concealing himself behind a curtain hes almost here he said as he looked out on the ghastly white lawn then he came running back the door had better bo opened be said and he threw the door to the office open then he sat in one of the chairs and began to whine loudly its an acute shooting pain doctor he said loudly and then he whispered what ought it to be I 1 beard the front door open and I 1 have often told you I 1 said with loud professional dignity that there Is a penalty attached to such habits as yours have you any nausea sick as I 1 can be with pain said jed groaning tremulously 1 I dont mind at all being Ta roused jed I 1 said just loud enough to carry to the person approaching and to sound to him as it it were a normal tone to jed with me in the office that Is a pan of my business lacre I 1 knew mr sidney was stand lus in the doorway so did jed neither of us betrayed our knowledge until the strange apparition which we knew to be there said up so late doctor up so late jed why mr sidney I 1 I 1 exclaimed he was indeed an extraordinary looking being he had controlled his olce and his manner discipline was fixed in his soul but he biad not con ti oiled his expression it was of the wildest excitement and yet bow he A T tried to preserve the formalities ties taken as he aias in such strange circumstances I 1 mr sidney I 1 I 1 exclaimed again and my wonder was not simulated lou abroad tonight at such an bourl lie made a violent effort to keep his composure and succeeded I 1 felt so well doctor he said and I 1 see so little 0 the place I 1 love so much that I 1 took the only chance I 1 had this wonderful october moon and my faithful physician asleep and off guard as I 1 thought to steal out a moment but jed here purpose took hold of him again and defied concealment he became excited and caused me to have double dread of his tomorrow jed call the he commanded theres a convict escaped I 1 met him as I 1 walked down the lane toward the river call the penitentiary instantly lie ran when he saw me but I 1 recognized him it was the old fellow I 1 saw working in the library at the prison call quickly jed took up the telephone tell them he ran east toward the main road said mr sidney in great sick as 1 can be with pain said jed agitation tie saw me and ran but I 1 recognized him there could not be any doubt jed had the penitentiary oil the telephone yes a convict ions trusted hid walked out of the prison gates it was the old man in atio library they were hunting tor him had been for three hours in several different parties not because they feared to have him escape but because he would be so miserable and unhappy in the open all night and liking him they to find him and bring him back to shelter lie bad no use for liberty it would only torment and torture him but some whim anyway the old man was loose aos on my place mr sidney cried to jed in a voice I 1 never would have recognized as his we cint have convicts running about the place they would have him in a few minutes said the roan at the penitentiary now that they had him located and he would be as glad to get back as they would be to get him that closed the and mr sidney with one flash of spirit showing in his eyes gently and softly collapsed in his chair with a moan jed and I 1 in alarm got him to bed CHAPTER XIV dr brownell came in the morning and found mr sidney as was expected in extreme exhaustion I 1 explained that our patient had been as usual the night prior to his alarming col lapses very animated and that after midnight he had stolen out of the house for a walk about the grounds had encountered a convict escaped from the penitentiary and had come back in great excitement restoratives Restora tives were given mr sidney but dr brownell said he responded with more difficulty and more slow ly than in other occasions for sev oral day he lay quite passive as nearly inanimate as a living person could be his immobile features as he lay unconscious were set and the expression it seemed to me was one 0 hate indomitable steady enduring hate dr brownell came once every three days for two weeks during which time jr kidneys recovery was painfully slow ills mind cleared and became active long belpre any strength came back to his body As soon as ills mind did clear he was in disposition his former self I 1 thought that it such ft thing were possible in so gentle a man he was even gentler than ordinary I 1 am not exaggerating when I 1 say that the benignity of the man was seraphic I 1 thought I 1 saw a hange of mood in him there was it I 1 was right a less insistent claim upon life there was a yielding leal and spiritual acceptance of the law of three score and ten it I 1 were not by little and Impress lva segni I 1 noted mr sidney was substituting complacently the will to die tor the will to live which had been in him conspicuously indomitable on dr brownell s last visit he con firmed what was in truth a fear iian mr sidney to your knowl edge he asked recently found a su preme satisfaction in any te vent none that I 1 enow of I 1 said why hes changing lie Is different now from anything I 1 ever knew him to be I 1 always have believed that his cast was out of our province and that lift and death for him depended apoi resolve and that the resolve had t purpose you have not found things wholly normal here have you no I 1 there Is something here said dr brownell 1 I dont know what it Is you dont know what it s but depend on it something of importance to sidney has happened it may not have satisfied his life a resolve but I 1 think it has for the present he does not need me possibly never again jed observed the change in mr sidney afterward I 1 knew that he was a much more acute observer than I 1 for the good enough reason that his observation had a background of knowledge which I 1 lacked there was no doubt directly as the consequence of this an unbelievable change in jed he was very fond of mr sidney in our unhappy experiences with him we had overlooked this fact and had failed to use it as we could have ills affection for mr sidney was the one thing greater than his cupidity and self love with their attendant train of malevolence violence surliness brutality and treachery he was convinced that mr sidney was about to die and the thought affected him tremendously lie became gentle he abandoned his rasping manner which indeed he never had carried into mr kidneys Sid room but which was an provocation elsewhere lie was more than ever with air sidney and each evening after the others hid rone they had a bottle of wine which jed drank but he did not go singing down the halls afterward he waa quiet and considerate courteous to mrs sidney and thoroughly friendly to me october went and the brown month of november took even he whiteoak white oak leaves and the woods stood in monochrome isobel and I 1 rode every morning and just before the early sun dovan we usually took a short walk to rustle the brown leaves underfoot and enjoy the sweetness of crisp air filled with the odors of a seemly decay underfoot soon after sunset we were in mr kidneys Sid room lie greatly to have the family about him not engaged in entertaining him or waiting on him but occupied in any amusement or work that could be undertaken by his bre jed bad a cot moved in and spent the night with him tie did not want the nurses to have this office and as he was perfectly competent I 1 con coni i dented it was an intensely happy and intensely unhappy experience exper ienco for me mr sidney I 1 was convinced would not live to the season isobel hid permitted him to follow the changing seasons from spring to winter by bringing him flowers and hla delight at seeing the first hepatica had been as great as hers in bringing it to him isobel could not realize that her fathey was dying no one would hav been so brutal as to tell her or would it have been brutal but mrs sl ney knew I 1 know jed knew and ml sidney knew and was happy the day before christmas came with a driving snow which set in with art east wind early in the morning it was a real christmas snowstorm heavy persistent and driving but not unkindly in the afternoon morgan of the metropolitan agency came driving with difficulty through the drifted banks of snow in the roads to see me again I 1 was full of apprehension as I 1 told jed to show him in ilia mood was different from what it had been before when he almost raged out of the house it seemed to me every blodys mood was changing nevertheless a child 9 fancy came into my mind outside was the storm through which traveled fierce animals of northern forest and litre out of the storm camo the werewolf doctor said morgan vre have done a great deal of work bance saw ou I 1 told sou we would because the case interested me we have traced mr sidney through every known operation and net so long as we can find him as mr sidney every act Is honorable many of them are acts of astonishing charity and kind ness n that Is so tar as mr sidney exists TO CE CONTINUED |