Adventure, June 1911 — page 191: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Emerald Buddha ing which I[ tossed about, a prey to broken and tortured dreams. I seemed to be struggling to free myself from a huge soft obiect which lay upon my chest and threat- ened to strangle me. In a madness of fear I half awoke, trembling and weak, and, with a cry, thrust the imaginary body from me and sprang to my feet in the bed. I saw nothing but the faint light of the window opposite me, and with a mad desire for air I sprang violently forward, my right foot, as [ lurched heavily outward, coming down upon the wooden stool by the side of the bed. And as I thus dashed headlong in the direction of the window, gasping desperately for breath, I suddenly felt a violent glancing blow upon the side of my head that shook me to the very marrow and stretched me stunned and unconscious upon the floor. THE process of coming back seemed to take an age, yet I know now that it could not have been more than a few brief moments. When at last I opened my eyes I was intensely weak and still gasping madly for air. I seemed un- able to breathe—my lungs and_ heart seemed oppressed as though by heavy weights. Slowly and painfully I struggled to my knees and raised my hand to my head, which seemed ready to burst with pain. It came away dripping with blood. ‘The sudden shock of the realization that I was wounded, together with the sharp pain the touching of the wound gave me, roused me to the necessity of quick and sudden action. I tried to rise, but my legs seemed made of stone—lI fell over upon my side and then began to crawl laboriously and painfully toward the door. The chok- ing sensation increased every moment— for a time I thought I should never be able to reach it, and then I thought of Muriel and all the future held for us, and [ made a last terrible effort, dragged myself across the few feet remaining between myself and the door and, with barely enough strength left to reach up and turn the knob, man- aged somehow to fall across the threshold and into the hall. { fell with my head and most of my body in the passageway and must have again become unconscious. When I once more revived I no longer felt the horrible sensa- tion of choking that had before oppressed me, and I attributed this to the cold air of — eS Raar. 377 the hall. I felt very weak, and my head was lying in a pool of blood, but my senses were fairly clear and I knew that I must regain my room and attempt in some way to stop the flow of blood. After some difficulty I managed to rise and stagger into my room and to find a wax taper and light the gas. A look into the mirror caused me to shudder—my face and the entire right side of my head were a gory mass of blood. I brought myself to some appearance of humanness and bound up the wound. It proved to be a long irregular gash, extending from near the temple down almost to my right ear. Returning cautiously to the green room, I entered and looked about me. The light from my own room and the gray signs of dawn without enabled me to see that it was empty—there was no silent figure crouch- ing within, waiting to deal me another deadly blow, nor had I expected to find any. I took one look about, seized my watch from the table and fled. But when I left that chamber of horrors and closed the door behind me, I knew how Robert Ashton had come to his death. eis ~ON RETURNING again to my =Ae= own room I glanced hurriedly at my watch. It was nearly six o’clock and I lay down upon the bed to rest. Pres- ently I fell asleep, from pure exhaustion, and did not awake until I was aroused by a tap- ping at the door. It was after ten o’clock and one of the maids had brought up my breakfast upon a tray. I sent word by her to Major Temple, requesting that Sergeant McQuade be asked to postpone his final examination of the green room until I had seen him. In somewhat less than an hour I had managed to get myself into fairly presentable condition and, with my head bound up in towels that Jooked for all the world like an Eastern turban, I slowly de- scended to the main hall and entered the library. Major Temple was standing with his back to the fire, talking earnestly with the detec- tive. As the former caught sight of my pale face and bandaged head he sprang forward and took my hand, “* Good , Mr. Mor- gan!’ he cried. ‘‘What’s wrong with you?” I tottered unsteadily to a seat and laughed. ‘Nothing much, sir,” I replied. ‘“T had a bit of an accident.” ‘You look rather done up, sir,” said Mc- COMmMiCLOOokkS. GO