All-Story Weekly, Vol. 112, No. 1 — page 123: what you’re looking at

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

GOOD REFERENCES. evergreens. Through a vista she glimpsed a house, ahd pointed, but Pete shook his head. Evidently it was not the right one. Presently they arrived at a tall, thickly grown hedge. He got down on all fours in front of i, thrust his head into an opening and, with a series of cautious wriggles, began to dis- appear from her sight. When he had com- pletely vanished, Mary undertook to fol- low him. The hedge was rough and stiff, and the aperture through which he had passed was uncomfortably small. With head and shoulders through, she looked up and found him beckoning. “Jt scratches awfully,” she whispered. “S-sh! Never mind the scratches.” She wriggled a few inches farther. “Ouch! I’m afraid Ill tear—” _ “Let it tear.” He seized her hand and dragged her completely through, mindless of her~pro- test that she was being flayed. “Don’t talk so loudly,” he warned. “Yow’re in the orchard now. It’s only a little way to the raiment. Remember: this is no deserted house. The folks are home. I’m banking on the fact that they’re at dinner, and that the servants are busy. Come on.” He now began to advance by a series of short rushes, each rush taking him from the shelter of one tree to the next.- Mary followed, establishing herself behind 4 tree as soon as he had vacated it. It seemed to her that the trees were intolerably meager in girth; she felt as if she were trying to hide behind a series of widely placed lead pencils. - But the dusk was con- tinuing to thicken, which was welcome con- solation. They were within easy view of the house now. It was something more than a house; it was a mansion, filled with innumerable windows, it seemed to Mary, and out of each window a pair of accusing eyes prob- ably staring. Where the orchard left off there was an open space, and beyond that a yard full of fluttering garments, suspend- ed from a clothes line. Between the yard and the house was another hedge, and Pete was counting upon that hedge as a screen. They paused at the edge of the orchard. 113 “For the next few minutes we are in the hands of Providence,” he whispered. ‘Want to come with me, or will you trust me to pick out a costume?” | ‘“JT—T'll trust you,” said Mary. ‘Stay right here, then. Here goes.” Out into the open, where there was still an ominous amount of daylight, dashed Bill Marshall’s valet, bent as low as he could manage without sacrificing speed. Mary held her breath and watched. A few sec- onds and he vanished behind a white cur- tain that represented a part of the family wash. To Mary it seemed that there was an in- terminable interval. Then, with a spooky flutter, the white curtain that hid him seemed to sirik into the ground. Another instant and the flying figure of Pete Stearns was approaching. He seemed to be pursued by a long, white snake, writh- ing close at his heels. And then he was back in the shelter of the trees. “Help pull on this!” he panted. And Mary identified the white snake as a clothes line to which was attached gar- ment after garment of ghostly hue. She -seized the line and together they raced back toward the rear of the orchard, the snake following. “Found a sickle and cut the whole line!” he explained. “Quickest way. Help yourself. I'll begin at the other end.” Mary was pulling clothes-pins as rapid- ly as she could make her fingers fly. “Don’t stop to choose anything here,” he warned. ‘Take everything. We've got to beat it.” So they took everything. Pete made two hasty bundles, thrust one into her arms, picked up the other and started at a lope through the orchard, in a direction op- posite to that from which they had come. They came to another hedge that was as forbidding as the one through which they had passed. He dropped his bundle, dove half-way through the hedge, made a swift inspection of what lay beyond, and then hauled him- self back again. “It’s all right,” he said. Picking up his bundle, he tossed it over the hedge. He seized Mary’s and repeated. cCoOmiclbooks C©