The Argosy, Vol. 84 No. 1 — page 40: what you’re looking at

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

30 boarded up like the rest of the house, but -—there stood the telephone! - There, upon the big table, rested the straight path to the whole world outside these walls! He chuckled aloud, and fairly raced at it, and it was in his hands and the re- ceiver at his ear before he had quite de- cided whom he wished to call. The police, of course—or might it not be better to get into communication with Catterson himself, make a full report, and ask further orders? There was no tele- phone directory in sight, but the informa- tion girl would give him Catterson’s num- ber. . Dr. Jim, growing impatient, clicked the hook up and down and listened again. Telephone service in Brooklyn, it seemed, was exceptionally poor at night. He wait- ed the better part of a minute; and then, since not even a hum came from the in- strument, pounded again upon the hook. Silence, heavy and unrelieved as that of the house itself, was all that came to his ear. Nor did it impress him as merely odd. On any telephone line there are always sounds of some sort—whispers, faint buzz- ings, little clicks and raps. Dr. Bowen held the instrument a little farther. off and examined it; it was real enough, with its green cord running off somewhere un- der the table. Once more he tried the hook; and having pumped up and down until he was weary and listened again without result, Dr. Jim grunted, and set out on a hunt for the bell-box and the inlet of the line, because long disuse in a house where there were doubtless plenty of rats and mice might have resulted in a broken wire. © Angry at the delay, however cheered he might be at the presence of the instrument itself, Dr. Bowen’s fingers went down the green cord and under the table to follow its further course. He frowned. Also, he squatted suddenly on.the floor, and then, with a tug, he brought the short length of cord loose from the staple which had secured it to the under side of the table. A snarl, and he straightened up again THE ARGOSY. < with the wretched instrument in his hand, paused, tossed it to the couch, and turned the heavy table on its side. Aside from the staple, hastily driven, not so much as a tack had ever touched that under ex- panse of costly wood; there was never a sign of wire nor had there ever been. His brief dream of communication with the outer world was over. Receiver, transmitter, and all had been left there to fool him or to fool some one else or because the absent eccentric who owned the place liked the sight of them, or for Heaven only knew what other reason, and—what was that, by the way? On tiptoe, Dr. Jim, speeding back to the corridor, was at the foot of the stairs be- fore the sound came again, muffled and thick, but unquestionably the sound of a woman weeping bitterly, off in the Egyp- tian darkness above. CHAPTER XII. FOUND. O™ in the open, the practitioner from Hallas could locate noises very promptly and accurately. In here he knew only that this one seemed to hang on the thick air, somewhere up-stairs. His nerves were near to getting the better of him, too, as he listened; his teeth gritted and his eyes glared excitediy; and the weeping died out in a last, low, trem- bling wail, and the oppressive quiet was on the place once more. But it was Helen! Knowing nothing at all about it, he was still perfectly certain of that! It was Helen, and in real dis- tress; and having settled so much in the first two seconds of the quiet, Dr. Jim bounded upward, pounced from the head of the flight to level flooring again, and ‘stopped short, rather painfully aware that he was ignorant of the second story’s geography. Either over that way—or over there— or, no, it had seemed rather to come from that direction! Dr. Bowen lighted an- other of his matches and thanked fortune NOOLKS AMG = Eo (E@)