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Show INTERNATIONAL PRESS ASSOCIATION. CHAPTER VI. (CmmsuBro When John awoke It waa day. Tho low winter sun was already In tho heavens, but his watch hnd stopped, and It was Impossible to tell the hour exactly. Ten, he guessed it, nnd made haste to dress, dismal reflections crowding crowd-ing on his mind. But it was less from terror than from regret that he now suffered; and with his regret there were mingled cutting pangs of penitence. peni-tence. Thcro had fallen upon him a blow, cruel, indeed, but yet only tho punishment of old misdoing; and he had rebelled and plunged into fresh sin. Tlfe rod had been used tb-chasten, and ho had bit tho chastening fingers. His father was right; John had Justified him; John was no guest for decent people's peo-ple's houses, and no fit associate for decent de-cent people's children. And had a broader hint been needed, there was tho case of his old friend. John was no drunkard, though he could at times exceed; ex-ceed; and tho picture of Houston drinking drink-ing neat spirits at his hall-table struck him with something like disgust. He hung back from meeting his old friend. Ho Could havo wished he had not come to him; and yet, even now, whero else was ho to turn? Thcso musings occupied hlra while he dressed, and accompanied him into tho lobby of the house. The door stood open on the garden; doubtless, Alan had stepped forth; and John did as he supposed his friend had done. The ground was hard as iron, the frost still rigorous; as he brushed among the hollies, hol-lies, Icicles jingled and glittered in their fall; and wherever be went, a volley vol-ley of eager Bparrows followed him. Hero were Christmas weather and Christmas morning duly met, to the delight de-light of children. This was the day of reunited families, the day to which he had so long looked forward, thinking to awake in his own bed In Randolph Crescent, reconciled with all men and repeating the footprints of his youth; and here he was alone, pacing the alloys al-loys of a wintry garden and filled with penitential -thoughts. And that reminded him: why was ho alone? and where was Alan? Tho thought of the festal morning and the due salutations reawakened his desire for his friend, and he began to call for him by name. As the sound of his voice died away, he was aware of the greatness of the silence that environed him. But for the twittering of the sparrows and the crunching of his own feet upon the frozen snow, the whole mindless world of air hung over him entranced, and the stillness weighed upon tils mind with a horror of solitude. soli-tude. Stilt callingat intervals, but now with a moderated voice, he made tho hasty circuit of the garden, and finding neither neith-er man nor trace of man in all its evergreen ever-green coverts, turned at last to the house. About the house the silence seemed to deepen strangely. The door, indeed, stood open as before; but the windows were stilt shuttered, the chimneys chim-neys breathed no stain into the bright air, there sounded abroad none of that low stir (perhaps audible rather to the ear of the spirit than to the ear of the flesh) by which a house announces and botrays its human lodgers. And yet Alan must be there Alan locked In 'drunken slumbers, forgetful of the return re-turn of day, of the holy season, and of the friend whom he had so coldly re ceived and was now so churlishly neglecting. neg-lecting. John's disgust redoubled at the thought; but hunger was beginning to grow stronger than repulsion, and as a stop to breakfast, If nothing else, ho must find and arouse this sleeper. Ho made the circuit of tho bedroom quarters. All, until he camo to Alan's chamber, were locked from without, nnd bore tho marks of a prolonged disuse. dis-use. But Alan's wbb a room In commission, commis-sion, filled with clothes, knlckknacks, letters, books, and the conveniences of a solitary man. The Are had been lighted; light-ed; but It had long ago burned out, and tho ashes were stone cold. Tho bed had beon mado, but it had not been slept In. Worse and worse, then; Alan must daro fallen where ho sat, and now sprawled brutishly, no doubt, upon the dining-room floor. CHAPTER VII. ho dining-room was a very long apartment, apart-ment, and was reached through a passage; so that John, upon his entrance, en-trance, brought but little light with him and must move toward the windows with spread arms, groping and knock ing on the furniture. Suddenly he tripped and fell his length over a prostrate body. It wat, what he had looked for, yet It shocked him; and ho marveled that bo rougli an impact should' not have kicked a groan out of tho drunkard. Men had killed themselves them-selves ere now In such excesses, a dreary and degraded end that made John shudder. What If Alan were dead! There would bo a Christmas day! By this, John had his hand upon the shutters, and flinging them back, beheld be-held onco again tho blessed faco of tho day. Even by that light the room had a dlscomfortablo air. Tho oliulra wero scattored, and one hnd boon overthrown; over-thrown; the table-clotli, laid as If for dinner, was twitched upon ono side, nnd somo of tho dlshos had fallrvi to tho floor. Behind tho tnblo lay the drunkard, still unarouscd, only ono foot Visible to John. But now that light was in the room, tho worst seemed over; it was a disgusting dis-gusting business, but not more than disgusting, and it was wl h no great apprehension ap-prehension that John proceeded to make tho circuit of the table; his last comparatively tranquil moment of that day; No Booncr had hp turned tho corner, cor-ner, no sooner had his. eyes alighted on the body, than he gave a smothered, breathless cry, and fled out of tho room and out of the Iioubc. It waa not Alan who lay thero, but a man well up In years, of stern countenance counte-nance and Iron-gray locks, and It was no drunkard, for tho body lay In a black pool of blood, and the open eyes stared upon the celling. To and fro walked John beforo tho door. The extreme sharpness of the air acted on his nerves like an astringent, astrin-gent, and braced them swiftly. Presently, Pres-ently, he not relaxing In his disordered wnlk, tho images began to come o'.earcr end stay longer In his fancy; and next tho power of thought came back to him, and the horror and danger of his situation situa-tion rooted him to the ground. He grasped his forehead, and staring on ono spot of gravel, pieced together what ho know and what he suspected. Alan had murdered somo one; possibly "that man" against whom tho butler chained the door in Regent's Terrace; possibly another; some ono at least; a human soul, whom It was death to slay and whose blood lay spilled upon the floor. This was tho reason of the whlB-ky whlB-ky drinking In the passage, of his unwillingness un-willingness to welcome John, of his strange behavior and bewildered words; this was why he had started at and harped upon the name of murder; this was why he had stood and hearkened, or sat and covered his eyes in the black night. And now he was gone, now he hnd basely fled; and to all his perplexities perplexi-ties and dangers John stood heir. "Let me think let mo think," he said, aloud, Impatiently, even pleadingly, pleading-ly, as it to some mercllcsB interrupter. In the turmoil of his wits, a thousand hints and hopes and threats and terrors ter-rors dinning continuously in his ears, ho was like one plunged In the hubbub of a crowd. How was he to romembor he who had not a thought to spare-that spare-that he was himself the author, as well as the theater, of so much confusion? But in hours of trial the junto of man's nature is dissolved, and anarchy succeeds. suc-ceeds. It was plain he must stay no longer where he was, for here was a, new Judicial Ju-dicial Error in the very making. It was not so plain rwhere he must go, tor tho old Judicial Error, vague as a cloud, appeared ap-peared to fill the habitable world; whatever what-ever It might be, It watched for him, full-grown, in Edinburgh; It must have had its birth In San Francisco; it stood guard, no doubtllke a dragon, at the bank where he sh6uld cash his credit; and though there were doubtless many other places, who should say In which of them It was not ambushed? No, he could not tell where he was to go; he must not lose time on these Insolubilities. Insolubili-ties. Let him go back to the beginning. begin-ning. It was plain he must stay no longer where he was. It was plain, too, that he must not flee aB he was, for he could not carry his portmanteau, and to flee and leave It, was to plunge ep. er In tho mire. Ho must go, leave the house unguarded, And a cab, and re turnreturn after an absence? Had ho courage for that? And just then he spied a stain about a hand's breadth on his trouser-leg, and reached his finger down to touch It. The finger was stained red; it yas blood; he stared upon It with disgust, and awe, and terror, and in tho sharpness sharp-ness of tho new sensation, fell Instantly Instant-ly to act. Ho cleansed his linger In tho snow, returned into tho house, drew near with hushed footsteps to the dining-room dining-room door, and shut and locked It. Then he breathed a little freer for hero at least was an oaken barrier betweon himself and what he feared. Next, ho hastened to his room, tore oft the spotted trousers which seemed In his eye a link to bind him to the gallows, flung them In a cornor, donned another pair, breathlessly crammed his night things into his portmanteau, locked It, swung It with an effort from the ground, and with a rush of relief, came forth again under the open heavens. The portmanteau, being of occidental, build, was no feather-weight; it had distressed the powerful Alan; and as for John, he was crushed under its bulk, and the sweat broke upon him thickly. Twice ho must set It down to rest before he reached the gate; and when he had come so far, he must do as Alan did, and take his seat upon one corner. Here, then, he sat awhile and' panted; but now bis thoughts were sensibly lightened; now, with tho trunk standing just Inside the door, some part of his dissociation from the houso of crime had been effected, and the cabman need not pass the garden wall. It was wonderful how that relieved re-lieved him; for the houso, in bis eyes, was a placo to strlko tho most cursory beholder with suspicion, as though the very windows had cried murder, But there was to be no remission of tho strokes of fate. As ho thug sat, taking breath In the shadow ot the wall and hoppod about by sparrows, It chanced that his oyo roved to tho fastening of tho door; and wm.t ho eaw plucked him to his feet. The thing j locked with a spring; onco tho door was closed, tho bolt shot of Itself; and without a key thcro was no means ot entering from without. Ho saw himself obliged to one of two dUgraccful and perilous alternatives; either to shut the door altogether and set his portmanteau out upon the wayside, way-side, a wonder to all beholders; or to lcavo tho door njar, co that any thievish tram.p or holiday school-boy might stray In and stumble on tho grisly bc-crot. bc-crot. To the last, as tho least desperate, desper-ate, his mind inclined; but ho must first insure himself that ho was unobserved. unob-served. He peered out, and down tho long road; It lay dcid empty. Ho went to tho corner of tho by-road that comes by way ot Dean; there, nleo, not a pas-Bengcr pas-Bengcr was stirring. Plainly It was, now, or never, tho high tide of his affairs; af-fairs; and ho drew tho door as close as he durst, slipped a pebblo In tho chink, and mado off downhill to find a cab. Half-way down a gate opened, nnd a troop ot Christmas children sallied forth In the most cheerful humor, fob lowed more soberly by a smiling mother. "And this Is Christmas-day!" thought John; and could hnve laughed aloud la tragic bitterness of heart. ITO CONTlNUBtl.l |