Argosy, Vol. 112, No. 2 — page 54: what you’re looking at

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

220 ‘ Jackie—” she began fearfully. ‘““Let’s hope he turns up here soon!”’ William said grimly, and made for the bath- room. He was a brighter, fresher being after a little cold splashing of his weary head in the huge old basin. Mrs. Elton im- proved considerably, too, in the next ten minutes. Then: “Tsn’t it awfully still?” she queried. “It certainly is almighty quiet for a lunatic asylum,” William confessed. ‘‘ They must have a very well-behaved lot of pa- tients. There wasn’t one howl all night ag He moved over to the door and listened. The grave could have been no stiller than the spaces beyond. He leaned upon the knob. It turned and—the door swung creaking inward. “Why, this thing’s open!” he gasped. ‘Dare we make a break?” cried Mrs. Elton, and came back to life with one giant throb. “ Dare we?” hissed William, and grabbed his ulster with one hand and Annabel with the other. ‘‘ Come on!”’ Side by side, they tiptoed out. No voice came to command a halt. Side by side, they sped down the stairs and across the lower corridor. Panting; William tugged at the spring latch of the outer door and dragged. That door, too, came open. The free sunshine lay beyond. And, with an almost deafening crash, the door swung fully back and struck the towering old hat-rack. As one, William and Annabel bounded to the soft turf. As one, they stopped a dozen yards away and looked backard, for all the world like a pair of hunted animals. Yet though the crash of that door might well have waked the dead, no steps were pounding through the house in pursuit of them. A tense half-minute passed. Much less tensely, it grew to a full minute. A little bird, chirping overhead, furnished the loudest sound in that immediate locality. “Say! That’s queer!” William breathed. “Well, don’t go back. Don’t—”’ William grinned suddenly at her, first real grin of several hours. “T’ve got to take just one peep. You the THE ARGOSY. keep on walking slowly and be ready to run. Don’t worry about me. I can get away.” Sheer curiosity had the better of him. Lightly, he stepped back to the fateful house, listened, hesitated and then stepped into it. “Doc!” called William, rather daringly. Seconds dragged by, but no answer came. “Hey! Doc!” William shouted at the top of his lungs. Still there was no answer. CHAPTER VIL. DID IT HAPPEN? ONE more minute, William stood quite still. Up-stairs, a lone rat scurried through the walls. That was all. Over that way, unless certain rather vile odors last night had been misleading, must lie the kitchen—down that corridor, Wil- liam surmised. Investigating it just now might be the most absurd and foolhardy thing in the world, but he was beyond resisting the temptation. That kitchen, as the heart of the household, should have been pulsing audibly at this moment. It was not. Cautiously enough, he made his way down the corridor and opened the door an inch or two and then, after the first wary glance, a foot or more. The kitchen it surely was, but a kitchen without a cook. The one dingy window was closed and locked; the big range as cold as any ice. Black, dry, and empty was the iron sink, and over there the empty pots hung in a dusty double row. No sugges- tion of coffee lingered on the air, no steam simmered from the chilly tea-kettle. Indeed, the place might not have been used for years; and having absorbed all these details with eyes that bulged slightly, William sped back to the door. “ Qohoo!”’ he called, to the shrinking Mrs. Elton, some fifty yards away. ‘“‘ Come back. They’re all gone!” ‘“‘ They’re what?” “Gone!” repeated William, as she ap- proached fearfully. credible, of course, but there seems to be COMEE “Tt’s darned near in- * DOOKS com