Adventure Magazine Cover — page 191: what you’re looking at

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

A Night in He passed out of the ground floor room into the dark passage. Mr. Westcott followed him to the foot of the stairs and then Captain Selby whispered: “Better stay where you are, Mister. worried.” R. WESTCOTT waited. Some- M thing creaked behind his back. He turned swiftly but could see nothing and hear nothing. He moved away from the foot of the stairs, feeling his way with his outstretched hands, risking he did not know quite what, and then he saw in the blackness a vertical slit of moonlight. He dug his teeth into his lower lip and clenched his fists. Who had come into the house last? He had. Had he left the door open? No, he was certain not. He had turned the key in the lock. He remembered perfectly. Some one else must have opened the door. From the outside? He felt with his hands. No, the key was still in the lock on the inside. Some one had left the house since he and Captain Selby and Mrs. Alvarez had entered! He opened the door wider and stared out into the night. The moon was low in the west, invisible from where he stood, but he could see sharp pointed aloes and a stunted tree and the ramshackle shed and part of a broken wall and the flat country beyond, between the house and the sea. Captain Selby descended the stairs softly. “There’s no one on the top floor,” he said. “T locked the front door when we came in,’ said Mr. Westcott. “Now it’s open.” “Stay here!’’ said Captain Selby. ‘“‘Keep your eyes open! Have you got a gun, Mister?”’ wal Ts ated “Can’t be helped. Give a shout if you see anything!”’ He vanished around the side of the house to the left, in the shadow cast by the moon: he reappeared after a short interval, walking very slowly across the open, from the direc- tion of the shed. When the door was closed, and locked once more, he whispered: “T crawled right round the house in the brush, then I went back of the aloes and the wall on hands and knees to the shed. I’m San Asensio 185 There’s no one there. But I tell you what, Mr. Westcott: I saw a man walking along the road toward San Asensio!”’ The woman spoke from the darkness. ‘“You saw a man on the road?” “Yes, ma’m.” They stood once more about the table in the small, hot room. ‘‘Let’s be going!” said the woman. “For God’s sake, let’s get away from this awful house.” She shuddered and put her hands to her cheeks and gazed at her husband with wide- open eyes. “Paul, I’m frightened!” Her husband gulped down a glass of cognac and said: “Frightened! What is the use of being frightened now? ‘Tony, you must be brave!” He filled the other three glasses and smiled. “You must drink! It will do you good!” He filled his own glass again. “Cognac I recommend as an excellent remedy in times of stress.”’ He raised his glass. ‘Captain Selby, and you, Mr. Westcott, I dr-rink to your good healths!”’ ‘“‘Are you ready, Paul?” said the woman. “Tf you take my advice, ma’m,” said the captain, “you'll wait here till sunrise!” ‘“‘What hope would we have then?” said the woman. “None!” “Suppose they’re watching?” said Mr. Westcott. “‘Wouldn’t they be just as likely to be watching tomorrow, or the day after? You don’t know them; I do. We must go. Any day now they’ll learn that my husband bought this place five years ago in another name. He bought it in case—in case things went wrong! I wonder they’ve not been here weeks ago!” Mr. Westcott saw in her eyes the reflec- tion of his own fears. She knew, he was positive, that their enemies were waiting, watching the house, ready for them to emerge! Or did she still hope! “Let’s go!”’ she said hoarsely. Her husband was drinking more cognac. His face was an unwholesome pink color and damp. His eyes looked swollen and too large for their lids. He smiled with one side of his mouth. *“‘An automobile would not help,” he said. “No. It must be on foot. Captain, do COnmiclboooks.c©