Argosy All-Story Weekly, Vol. 123, No. 4 — page 165: what you’re looking at

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

sound you heard. Hearing you move about the room, I tried to attract attention in that manner, but with each tap the cot was pushed further away; and I was just giving up hope when you answered me. “TI tried to signal again, but couldn’t be- yond a few'taps. What a relief it was when you broke in the door, no one will ever know!” “ But your nephew didn’t intend to have -you starve—at least he sent a telegram to- day telling me to look for you.”’ I showed it to him. ‘“No, I don’t think he quite planned to murder me; if he had, he would have done so in the beginning. He did threaten to, but I knew he would not dare to carry it out and so defied him. He wanted the combination of the safe, and when he saw that I would not give it to him and was unafraid, he said he would break it open himself. " “IT see!” I exclaimed. ‘‘ He was the man that I nearly caught the first night! And to think that you and he were shut up there all the time that we were explor- ing what we took to be an empty house!” ‘‘ The very knowledge that you were there was what drove me to desperation. I guessed it must be you when the front door bell rang, and uncautiously cried out that my great-nephew Carlos had come and would protect me. “Then Richard sprang on me like a tiger, bound and gagged me after a strug- gle, and then leaving me helpless on the . couch, went softly to the head of the stairs and listened. After a few minutes he went down.” “Then it must have been he who opened the front door and went out while we were exploring in the rear,” I cried. “I felt sure the door was locked the first time.” “Yes, I always keep it locked. . Richard had got in through a small window in the side, but he must have judged it safer or easier to leave by the front.”’ “But later I heard a door opening or closing while we stood in the hall. It seemed a little ways off.’ “That must have been my door blowing to. I remember it did so, to my joy, for I hoped it would attract your attention and N’ ry Gor ogle MOORS END. 671 you would come up. Oh, the agony I suf- fered, knowing that you were so near and I was so helpless!” “It was a devilish trick!” I cried hotly. ‘“‘ It makes me wild even now, to think that you were shut up here all the time and I didn’t know it!” “He is a devil and he will answer for it,” Uncle Gregory fairly hissed. His anger exhausted his strength and he Jay back with white lips. “You are tiring yourself, uncle, please stop now and tell me the rest another time. Shirley will think I’ve been a bad nurse if I let you go on.” “TI don’t care,” said my great-uncle ob- stinately, “it will tire me more to stop before I’ve told you all his villainy!” He was growing so excited that I real- ized it would indeed do more harm to try and silence him, so I continued my question- ing. “Tell me everything then—when did he come back and why? I heard the front door slam while we were at supper and thought it was the wind.” “That was when he came back, prob- ably the wind may have shut the door be- fore he could help it. He would hardly have wanted to make a noise that would — bring you up. I had been lying there for over an hour, hoping that he had gone for good and that you would soon find me, when the door opened softly and in he came again. ‘“ He told me, like the sneering devil he is, that he couldn’t give up my society so quickly, and that he would stay with.me until you had gone to bed, and then open the safe at his leisure. remain helpless, while you came up-stairs, and even tried the very door behind which I lay.” I clenched my fists in potent rage at the way I had been fooled. Why hadn’t I guessed what was behind the locked door and burst it open? There were other facts, however, which I was burning to know. ““'Why didn’t he make off at once the first time he went out?” _ “I think he intended to, but he was desperately set upon getting the paper that night. He probably reflected that you be- = OHIO STATE | Neoniebook I was obliged to