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Show BEAVER CITY PRESS RED LAMP The :' By MARY ROBERTS RINEHABT Copyright fcr Ceo. H. Doras Comptsf W'NU terra , SYNOPSIS Events of the story as set forth In the Journal of William A. Porter, professor of English literature: The professor's uncle, Horace Porter, died mysteriously at hU home, Twin Hollows, now the Jane, the profetssor's property. professor's wife, Is a psychic. She insists Uncle Horace, dead for a year, had attended his class reunion and produces a snapshot to prove her contention. Professor Cameron, Interested In psychical research, Inclines to the Idea of psychic photography. With their niece, Edith, the Porters so to Twin Hollows for their vacation, despite Jane's reluctance. A let' ter Horace had been writing at the time of his death shows that he was Interested In spiritualism. It hints of danger. A "red lamp" ' la mentioned. "... - (Continued.) j :3- i Thomas whs cutting the lawn, wlib a mare borrowed for tlie purpose pulling the old horse mower, and the Oak vllle constable. Starr, who Is also the local carpenter, was replacing old boards with new ou the raised walk to the bench. "Hear you're going to live In the Lodge," Bald Starr, spitting over flit rail. "Mrs. I'orter feels the main bouse Is too large for us." :' ' lie eyed me sharply. 'Yes," he said. 'Vretty big bouse, Well. I'm In a dollar on It" "A dollar?" "1 bet you'd never live In It," he said, and there was a furtive gleam of amusement In his eye as he marked a board preparatory to sawing It t "It's my opinion. Starr,". 1 said, "that you people around here have talked this place Into disrepute.' "Maybe we have," he said, non comnilttally. "Mr. Horace I'orter lived there for twenty years." "And died there," he reminded me. "Of chronic heart trouble." "So the doctor says." "But you don't think so?" "I know he had Rot a right forcible knock on the head, too." "I thought that came from his full." "Well, It may bave," he said, und signified the end of the conversation I by falling to work with his saw waited, but he evidently felt he had Bald enough, and his further speech lie was guarded In the extreme, didn't know whether Mr. I'orter had been writing or not when It happened. No, he'd been the first to get there, and he had seen no paper. Asked If he had had any reason, any experience of his own, to make him wager we would not live In the house, he only shook his head, But as I started hoc!; he called after me.. "1 don't know as there's any truth1 In It," he said. "Hut they do say, on Etill nights, thut he's been heard coughing around the place. I ain't ever heard It myself." So Thomas thinks that Uncle Horace was frightened to death, and Starr Intimates that he was murdered, and nil this was seething In the tuinds of these people a year ago, without It reaching me at all. There had been no Inquest', simply, as I recall,' Doctor iiayward notifying the coroner by telephone, and giving organic beat disease as the cause. 1 was, I admit, startled this morn lug as I turned bark to the main bouse. But I knew the tendency ot small Inbred communities to feed on themselves, for lack of outside nutri-merit, and by the time 1 had reached the terrace I was putting Starr's state-- . tnent about a blow In the same class with the cough heard at night. ' I turned and went Into the house to find that Annie Cochran had turned the blotter and that the last word the poor old boy had written had been ' ' "danger." ' ,: ' ' June 26. In and the settled are Lodge, We ' whatever Edith may say as to Its romantic outside apiwarance, within ti ' is ' frankly hideous. It Is all a tage should not be. From the old parlor organ downstairs to beds that dip In the center above. It Is atrocious . Vet tonight Jane Is a happy woman, Can It be that women require resi from their possessions, as for Instance - I do from my dinner clothes? That H Clves them the sanie sene of freedom to don. speaking figuratively, a pailoi orgnn and the cheaK'St of other fur nlshtngs. as It does me to put od in? J undent fishing girmcnts? Or y Jane simply relieved? I confers that tonight with Laikitt' I fidvertlBeinvnt for the other" house be fore nie, I feel not nitty In Hi position of a man attempting to sell a gold brick, but that I have a secret hanker In? for the gold brick myself. , t , . "For rent for the- - season. turgf handsomely furnished house oo bn) three miles from Oakvllle. Beautiful location. Thirty two acres. landfcajH-Flower and kitchen garden. i - ; , and when I went over the desk after bis death, the merest indication of a paper caught behind the drawer would bave sent me after It rp j The other explanation is that I received a telepathic message. It came, as I fancy such messages must come, not from outside but from within. I heard nothing; It welled up, above the Incoherent and vague wanderings of a mind not definitely In action, In a clear cut and definite form. "Take out the bottom drawer on the right" But If I am to accept telepathy, l am to believe that 1 am not alone In my knowledge of this letter Yet considering the tone of It the awful pos slhillty It Indicates, wjio could have such a knowledge and yet keep It ti himself? How did it get behind the drawer? If the brownish smudge ou the corner turns out to be blood, and I think It Is. then It was placed In the drawer after be died. Annie Cochran and Thomas both deny having seen any The doctor, perhaps? paper about But would he not have read It first? It had been crumpled Into a ball and thrown Into the drawer, and the subsequent opening of the drawer had pushed It back, out of sight So much Is clear. But aftet he fell! Suppose and In the privacy of this Journal I may surely let my Imagination Wandersuppose then, that some other hand picked up this paper, Ignorant of Its centents, and to a hurried attempt to put the room In or dor, flung It Into the drawer? Or to ward the waste basket beside It and If fell short? Suppose, In a word, that some other hand, again, turned out the dim red lamp In the next room, or left It to see the way to escape? I must not let my nerves run away with me. Murder Is an ugly word, and after all we have Hayward's verBut dict of death by heart failure. a sufficient shock or a blow, might have brougnt that on. Fright even, for the poor old chap was frightened when he wrote that letter. Trembling That was like but uncompromising. him. "I realize fully the unpleasantness of my own situation ; even. If you are consistent, Its danger But" But what? But In spite of this I shall do as I have threatened, pron ably. We I am profoundly moved tonight did not love one another, but be was old and alone, and menaced by some Just what monstrous wickedness. that wickedness was no one can say, but I fully believe tonight that he died of It. '. I began to go through the desk once more. All Important papers had been taken away alter the death, and the drawers container the usual riff raff of such depositories, old keys, an clent cheek books. telr stubs tilled in Uncle Horace's neat hand. Naturally, I was thinking of him More or less, I was concentrated on him. if this Is any comfort to my spiritualistic friends. He had. In d.-efallen out of the very chair In which I sat when he was stricken, and had apparently cut his head badly on the corner of the desk. All this was lu my mind, as 1 closed the last drawer and surveyed the benp of rub" bish on the flesk. I suppose I was subconclously reconstructing the night of his death, when be had penned that word "danger", which new lay, clearly outlined '''j " rental" .v.Ji dare aay we . ' :i - ' shall do well Yet I enough. After all, there comes a time when ambition ceases to burn, or to tir, and the highest cry of lle human henrt Is' for pence Here. ' I feel. Is peaces e ' " t Junt 27. have found Onde Horace's letter nd In a manner so curious that ther. cani be, It seems to me but two in terpretallons of It One Is that some how, I have bad all along a rubcon sclous knowledge of Us presence be-But I hesitate to hind, the drawer. accept that I am orderly by Instinct, 1 - Edit says rje can u the sea,- of soap In a cake take "And easily. -- W I wash himself ashore," and am frowned down, probably . too old for such ribaldry. Jane is very serene, with. she sits on our small veranda raise Sr tapestry, I see her berjsre. and glance toward the do L nor It, mention but she does not to take refused absolutely she But Larkin had the pictures of the house It use asked for. Not that she put "And1 ps-ges- t, th"l" haven't had any luck with the take camera lately," she said. "You do it" them, or let Edith The result of the collaboration, which followed early this afternoon to deis etill In doubt Jane Intends evening. this them velop and print And so our life goes on. We retire scented early. I generally slightly from the cold cream of Edith's goodhousehold staff, night kiss. Clara, our too. goes up early, probably looking It. under her bed before retiring Into And .TanA sits and sews while I make Journal: she my nightly entry In this both I think, jealous anu lumuj Is, suspicious of Itl At ten o'clock or so we let Jock out and he looks toward be main house and then turns out the gates and into the highroad, where for a half hour or so he chases rabbits and possibly be y looks for a bear. At scratches at the door, and we admit him and go up to bed. Later: I bave just had a surprise amounting to shock. Jane finds she has forgotten the black Japanned lantern with a red elide which she uses In the mysterious rites of developing pictures, and suggests that we go to the other house and use the red lamp there. , "But 1 can bring it here." "I am through being silly about the other house. William," she says with an air ot resolution. "Anyhow, the pantry there Is better, and you can it in th kitchen. Bring a book or something." She has, poor Jane, very much the air of Helena Lear 8 kitten the day Jock cornered It and It came out res olutely and looked him in the eye. In effect Jane Is going out to meet her bugaboo and stare It down. June 29. Jane is In bed today, and 1 am not all I might be, although 1 managed to get an Indifferent print or two to Larkin this morning. about as fol- felt partlcularlj lows: She had not ATI torino th a house, ai- o uneasy to." aha though I had expected Nor at the beginning of operatlons in the pamry. iu, however, bad had a peculiar quality she to It; V "fro2" ter, she aaya.; felt rigid vnm iu And it continued after she heart mo close the kitchen door. This wind, she says, was not omy she eo cold that she called to me, but had an Impression that It was coming and from somewhere near at hand, m se the curtains blowing i.. out at the window. The lower sash was down, as she couia teu oy we - red lamo- in it but she UCV.UUU air,n Vn thawindow to see if the upwent to the per sash had been lowered. With the darkness outsiae, we g'uss a enrt nf mirror, and she ...j i. Uau uu" said her own figure in it startled her for a moment sne sioou aimmj m it .,cr. cha rpnllrpd that She Was not alone in the room. Clearly re flected, behind ano over uer ni,u. shoulder, was a face, n- dtonnnnnivd almost Immediately, doubts and I have my own private I fTnsila lit i about her recognition oi Is post facto. Horace, which I believe tier eiui.vu," ad-mit- t. rr vs. When gourS Children Cm lor It M 1 Castorla is a for It Is well enough d and nerveless Individuals to speak of fear as a survival of that time when In our savage state, we were surround ed by enemies, dangers, and a thou sand portents In skies we could not comprehend, and to Insist that when knowledge conies in at the door, fear and superstition fly out of the window It Is only In his bead that man Is neroic; In the pit of his stomach he Is always a coward. Yet,, stripped of Its trimmings the empty, echoing house, Its reputation and my own private thoughts about Its possible tragedy, the Incident loses much of Its terror; Is capable. Indeed. of a quite normal explanation. That Is. that Jane either saw some one outside the pantry window, or was the victim of a suhjecthe Image of her , comfort one is at ease. If restless, a few D soon bring contentment v),.Tl for Castorla Is a baby remedy tec-thirt- i eneuy J sale to glre g juuugesi, iuianc: you nav tr, word for that! It Is a vegetable A wum usu n even M """v But it's in an emergency that CasteJ means most." Some night when c3 puuuu must oe reuevea or colic pail or other suffering It; some mothers keep an extra boa unopened, to make sure there ways be Castorla in the hous i effective for older children, too; J tne dook mat comes with it Mosqloil j Myrr! HANFORD'S "But I Can BrinQ It Here." But 1 am obliged to admit that Jane eaw something, either outside the window and looking In, or the creation of her own excited fancy. As soon as 1 could leave her 1 went outside, but I could find no one there, and this morning I find that my own footprints under the window have entirely obliterated anything else that may have been there. Jane herself believes It was Uncle Horace, but I cannot find that she received anything more than an Indistinct Impression of a face. She rather startled me this morning, however, by asking me If I had ever world. thought that Uncle Horace had not We have settled down Into out rou died a natural death. tine here very comfortably. Our eggs "Why In the world should I think and milk are brought each morning such a thing?" But pressed for an explanation she by a buxom farmer's daughter, one Morrison, a sturdy red own producing. Maggie merely said she had heard that the cheeked girl To put the affair in consecutive spirits of those who have died violent With the lifwns cut and the shruo deaths are more likely to appear than shape. At eleven o'clock 1 had moved the oery trimmed, the place grows In of others who have passed peaceably creasingly lovely. At low tide the red lamp from the den In the other away; that the desire to acquaint the beach Is covered with odds and ends house to the pantry and there con world with the circumstances of the from the mysterious life of the sea Jane seemed to be going tragedy Is overwhelming! nected It ' red and white starriph. sea urchins, very well Deyond the pantry door, and What seems much more likely Is and disintegrated Jelly fish Sea gulls after a time I ceased the reassurlnt that she has caught from me, with pick op musnels. hover oyer a flat whistling with which I had been af that queer gift of hers, some Inkling topper5 rock, drop them onto its sur firming my continued presence within of my own anxiety. . face and then swoop down upon the call, and grew absorbed In a book. Larkin's report from the laboratory broken shell, with a warning cry to It mupt have been 11:15 when she shows that the stain on the corner of othpr culls to keep away. called out to me sharply to know the letter Is blood. One lives and learns. The boathouse Is ready for youn ffliere a cold wind was coming from Not only does the report state that it Halllday. Edith has put in It a great and although I felt no such air Is blood, but that It Is human blood. deal of love and one or two of m closed the kitchen door. It was with Moreover, that It is about a year old. most treasured personal possessions. in a couple of minutes of that. and that It Is the Imprint of a hu"That Isn't by any chance my smok thereabouts, that I suddenly heard hei man finger, but Is too badly blurred Ing stand?" give a low moan, and the next Instani for Identification, as It was made while "But you aren't going to smoke nere was the crash of a falling the blood was fresh. body much rhls summer. Father William." When I opened the pantry door So does science come to the aid ot she says, and tucks a hand into my found her in a dead faint underneath the police today. Truly one lives and arm, "I heard you suy so yourself." the window When she revived, she learns It has a sitting room, bedroom and maintained that she had seen Uncle June 30. kitchenette, hut no bath. norm h.. I have been brought today, for the flrsft time. Into active contact with the feeling of the country people against my house, and especially in against the red lamp It Is an amazing situation. Thomas came to the Perhaps the most familiar of all one in ji in, susiieudod hv i..,,.i.. morning while I was at doorway this ways of consulting fate by means of tied thread head downward from breukfast folits lowed Starr the constable, who re a flower Is the pulling off ol the pin, began to curve Its stems upward mulnedby somewhat uneasily behind until they stood upright and petals. But this Is not the only way n m. finally It developed that An American In England, visiting an the tips burst Into bloom-thalf a dozen hen ail sheep It; a meadow beyond Robinson's ancient and remote country Inn one wn well, and they might to expect point, were found the day missed her way In rambling cor ....... , n.i.i nve nappy ever after night before last with their throats cut rldors and entered by mistake the bid The farm-e-r who owned them room of her pretty chambermaid. The heard them mill-inInto Going Detail about and ran out and girl was there, changing her dress, ami he de A who bonu.r clure? he saw a dark xhe offered presently to guide the lady IllHWB ertaln gentleman . ... . . figure dart out IIS nlnaa t the field and run into hiuk to her apartment In the brief my wrH,ds at the head of Uohlnson's wait the visitor noticed something point his choice. it appear that struck her us odd. So she aUed that the farmer, whose i . Mowing Is iet,er ne name Is Nytie. abandoned why a certain little plan! had been flitt rtiila-uiv M . the pursuit as soon a he miw pinned up on the wall. "Surely It will where the fugitive ie oj shunting fade unless It Is put In water." she was headed and went hnck "P to hU eratioris throughout the said. . dead sheep night Thej were neatly laid "r.PlitlpriiMf, .... a,i,. , ,,,,, mll ' "Bee pardon, ma am. but It won t. In d row "Ai what lime was replied the girl with pride and satis all this?" I .... .... .,. Krm (lrl(1 fuction In her voice. "Thnt'a a pin asked " I snd ..... i,- -.. -bump chns and brct It's and growfn tht Eleven o'clock or plant thereubouts." week Every bud has opened, too It's whistle and wheeze nd nd J"k t a?ked t'W "'"'"l an. snarl and slam Hnd .... "They , doing fine. ,hlb ah.p. don't they? tWh fnetD bf ann and rattle yp ' It was a pretty tuft of yellow stone Hie m'U throat or .f" smell and something?" " "" "'KM loner . crop, starred with little golden flowers -don't 'They stab rhem Exchange with a kI1fe, A few questions about Its uses as u Not around here, anyhow." Sllirr. "pin plant. and the girl, laughing The ostensible the jm Tht "Thunderer" and blushing, admitted that It was In London customary among the girls ol the vll i ,mmrS ' lage to pin a tuft of the budded plant ITS.', John Walte ' m t once connect npon heir bedroom wall as an oracle entitled the Dal "r ,lh ,,nrt curI' 'WM. .copy. of li ve. If It lived feebly but did not "I rirt-hlimin. their present love affairs would inter upp!1(,M.d thl'f'v ,f "U14 "Ymi11 Vohably Bud coine to riortilng". If It withered and ' ml title o, 'pS, In 13 y meet disaster "m!A'V" ',0 wo'ild sued from love, J"u,nl died, Ihcjr " "uuae square iw If at 'he end of a few daya the since 17SS. Put Implicit Faith Balsam of Money back for fifrt bottle If not kM. ilbml Discovered Ancient C'd) Robert J. Oasey, American ita returned recently from a trip S to where he said he found the nuns a great city and believes he first white man ever to gaa h ruins tha. at one time proW housed a million Khmers frra Fifth to the Eleventh centuries. Natives feared to penetrate dense jungle surrounding the cit; Is related. Unaccompanied, he pim through bamboo thickets fot w dtj thirty miles and found theflIW rounded by a slimy moat crocodiles. He stated that Freici the rl cheologists had discovered which In nants of citws Khmers lived at one time, but find no record in France of tie he stumbled upon. nave , Long Wear juu 6""v usually "Well, my suits I ve maue tne imai ' c tost yajm r'i I "Mr 1 Flower "Oracles" atf tiii Bayer when do you always gw to say Bayer on, k the ' printed J( you rw. i t genuine Bayer Asn w-j drugstore altudceo1" proven directions g "And Died There," He Reminded Me And thai on the blotter. when I wandered Into the den, look' lng for a place to store whnt Leai falls l he detritus plied up n the de.--k I was still thinking ot It. But I can Into Hit not feel that my entrainroom, or m Idly, switching on the red lamp which stood there, bad the slightest connection with the message I seemed at that moment to receive: "Take out the boitora drawer on the in .reverse, - , : ter In the original Journal, so I give ft here,) Unfinished letter of Mr. Horace Porter, addressed to aome one unknown, and dated the day of his death, Jane 27 of the preceding year; "I am writing this In great distress of mind, and In what I feel is a righteous anger. It la incredible to me that you cannot see the wickedness of the course you have proposed. "In all earnestness 1 appeal to yon to consider the enormity of the Idea, tour failure to comprehend my own attitude to it, however, makes me believe that you mar be tempted to go on with It: In that case I shall feel It my duty, not only to go to the police but to warn society In general "I realize fully the unpleasantness of my own situation ; even If you are consistent, Its danger. But" The letter had not been finished. Juna 23. . I last little night, and this slept very morning made an excuse to go up to town with the letter. Larkin had telephoned me that he had an Inquiry n the bouse through Cameron, and this gave rue a pretext Larkin is Impressed with the letter, but does not necessarily see its connection with Uncle Horace's death. "You haven't an idea who It's meant for, you say?" "Not the slightest He hadn't any friends, Intimates, so far as I know. The Livingstones, very decent people with a big place about six miles from him, his doctor, and myself that's about all." '"Enormity ot the Idea, " he read again. "Of course that might be a new poli?on gas, or this thing the press Is always scaring up. the death ray. Some fellow with a bee In his bonnet, you may be sure." "That wouldn't Imply danger to him self." ; ;.4 "Any fellow with a bee In. his bonnet Is dangerous." he said, and gave me hack the letter. "Of course," he went on, "you've made a nice point about the stain on the corner. If It's blood. It's hardly likely he got up again and put It where you found It But I think youU find the servant there, what's her name, picked It up In her excitement and threw It Into the drawer However, If you like, I'll bave that stain tested and see what It la" i tore off the corner, and left him putting it carefully Into an envelope He glanced up as i prepared to go. "What's this 1 hear about your keep log off demons by drawing some sort of a cabalistic design around yourself?" he asked "You'd better let me In on It; I need a refuge now and then." Which proves that a man may shout the eternal virtues and be unheard forever, but If he babble nonsense in a wilderness It will travel around the I right" I have heard people who believe ID this sort of thing emphuslze the peculiar Insistence of the messages, ami this was true in this case I do not recall that there was any question In my mind, either, at to which bottom drawer on, the right I, was to remove And behind the drawer I found ' . I ol tel no the made (Note: cupj "' ,'.' . ,r ; , iptriB u TTr Z. .hH. V ,ld mlA niafJS etfo (to EE CUfrriNUEU. tion pln. "rtJ"J lor1, preoption |