Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 82: what you’re looking at

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

708 mood succeeded. The rustling of the wind among the potted plants along the balcony quieted her. And finally she opened the bed and slipped between the sheets. She expected to lie awake until dawn. But in a few moments waves of weariness began to sweep over her body and break upon her mind. Then the sea of drowsi- ness was broken up by a faint noise at the window. She listened, wide awake but wuncon- cerned. What could trouble her in the way of alarms after what she had been through? Moreover, she was filled with _a placid satisfaction at the thought of the astonished faces in the morning when she told her story, with John Hodge present to corroborate all the important points. They would wonder at the steadiness which _had enabled her to keep the alarm until the morning. Suddenly all thought of the morning to come vanished from her mind. The light noise at the window, like a scratching against the woodwork, was followed, after the slightest interval, by a faint thud against the floor. It was hardly a sound; it was rather a vibration that came dimly but distinctly to the bed. She was cautious enough not to sit up in bed and make a noise in so doing. She merely lifted her head, and against the rectangle of the window she saw the outline of a clearly defined man’s body! And the revolver remained in her dressing gown on the back of a chair at the farther side of the room. In the moment of waiting that followed she wondered first of all at the motionless - figure of the man. For what was he wait- ing? And then she realized that he was waiting simply to make sure that the noise of his coming had not disturbed her. A light click and a flash of light. She closed her eyes. She summoned the last scruple of her courage and was able to smile faintly in her sleep. Full on her face struck the light of the electric torch. Then that light flicked away. She opened her eyes. The room was black again. The sil- houette of the man was gone from the window. In the farther corner beside her bureau it seemed to her that she could _the emerald, indeed! ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. make out his figure again, however, but all was indistinct—shadow within shadow. There was not the least sound, what- ever it was that employed the man. But presently the electric torch was snapped on again. It cast a flush of light across the top of the bureau. In that brilliancy she could see agile, active hands at work. He seemed to be lifting and turning every- _thing he saw. Then he abandoned the top of the bureau and began to search in the top drawers. What on earth could he be seeking? But there was the emerald! At the thought of that long, slender, ob- long jewel which Commodore Dascom had given her, a thrill of anguish ran through her heart. She would almost rather risk death than the loss of that. Now she marked the far corner of the room where her dressing gown was a sloping shadow thrown over the chair. How long would it take her to throw the covers back, spring for the robe, find the gun, and attack the invader with it? And would she indeed suc- cumb to the wild temptation to make that attack? As for the robber, he could quietly turn _the shaft of his light upon her, shoot her dead, and flee through the balcony and down from the balcony to the ground. Anxiously she watched the progress of those busy hands at the drawers, and then the light caught and glimmered upon a metal box. Yes, he had found the box of And the sight of it snapped whatever caution still restrained her. She drew the bed cover noiselessly loose at the foot of the bed, and secured an ample hold on a corner of it. In the mean- time the little box had been unlocked, and as the robber lifted the lid she sprang out of bed and threw the spread toward the head of the stranger, at the same time running for the chair which contained her robe and the gun in it. Luck favored that cast of the bed cover. The burglar, wheeling at the first sound, had bolted for the opened window, but as he ran the big cloth dropped over his head and brought an exclamation of rage and fear from his lips. ——GOmIiGbooksnco