The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 1 — page 38: what you’re looking at

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28 THE mendous yawn, Dr. Bowen dragged his chair straight to the open door of the drawing-room and, the stairway not four yards distant, settled down comfortably. There was something almost narcotic about the stillness of the house and the neighborhood at this hour. His tired, worried being lulled slowly and he hunched down farther, an undignified physician, but one wearing a faint smile. At the worst, he could pass the night here and take up the chase in the morning rather disheveled, but rested enough. He stretched his legs straight out and folded his arms and yawned again. And presently he roused with a start. Nothing had happened—of that he felt cuite certain—but a certain sense of much time passed lurked in his mind. If the girl had any idea at all of leaving, she must be moving now, because it must be past midnight. Dr. Jim, dragging out his watch again, blinked at it and became quite wide awake. It was just two o’clock in the morning! 5 CHAPTER XI. TRAPPED. Sete day an analytical psychologist will explain to us in words of one syl- lable the nameless spell of the very early morning hours—why it is that, if we came home last night at twelve it was merely an ordinary evening, whereas if we re- turned at half past one we grin over a pleasantly disreputable memory next morning—why it is that the telephone, ringing before midnight or after sunrise, is merely a bother, while if it chooses to explode at three in the morning, a different horrible premonition comes with every stroke of the bell. Dr. Bowen, before he quite meant to rise, was on his feet and looking around with a scowl. The whole: affair, beginning at Catter- son’s home, had been queer enough be- fore, Heaven knew! But what sort of \ ‘ ARGOSY. family was this, anyway, that permitted him to drowse in its drawing-room until two in the morning? That they were not exactly normal he had suspected, but this performance clas- sified them as downright odd—cor worse. Why had not somebody come to explain that Miss Catterson had decided to re- main through the night, the butler if no- body else? If it came to that, why had that sober being dropped out of existence? He had not passed this way. Dr. Jim, entirely acquainted with his own manner of taking rest, could vouch for that; if the man had even closed a door within his normal hearing, he would have been awake. And just where was Miss Helen herself, whom he had undertaken to watch? Dr. Bowen, feeling a little, cool thrill creep down his spine, walked into the broad hall and listened. The grave could have been no more silent than the house in which he had dined. The air seemed heavier, too; it was downright unbreathable, and _ his lungs, accustomed to much oxygen, felt clogged and stifled. He yearned for a dozen deep inhalations of outdoor air be- fore going further, and since the family could not well object to his opening one of their windows, he strode across the thick catpet and forced upsthe creaking catch that held the inner shutters. He turned them back—and having done so, Dr. Jim’s astonished little exclamation rumbled through the place. Behind those shutters, between himaslf and the outer pane, the window was tight- ly boarded! Dr. Bowen’s quick hand went out to confirm the evidence of his eyes; it was a move quite unnecessary. The boarding was nailed in fast and it had been there for months; as he pushed at its unyielding surface, firte dust puffed from the cracks. And the significance of that little discove: ery was as plain as the nose on his face and a good deal more startling: this was some- body’s home, but somebody was not living here now! EOPMICGLOOOKS (E@)