The Argosy — page 42: what you’re looking at

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

The White Witch. 27 ing all night long and get no rest. Why not sleep in the Swallow- room? ‘The bed there is always kept aired and ready.” “Very well,” said the compliant easy man. “ It is rather far off this room, though.” ‘Oh, not at all,” returned Mary. ‘I could run for you in half a minute if you were wanted here. But you will not be; I am sure mamma will sleep fs Mary stopped suddenly, and her face changed. For the first time she had caught sight of Godfrey. He had stayed behind near the door, and occupied himself with making searching glances round the room. Lydia was the next to come in, looking nearly as frightened as her mistress. ‘To not stay, please, Mr. Godfrey,” said Mary to him. ‘ The sight of so many people here only makes mamma more nervous. Lydia, we shall not want you; you can go to bed. It was my com- ing in unexpectedly that startled mamma again and caused her to cry out,” she concluded to the maid. But Godfrey remembered he had seen a figure he knew to be Mary’s flying along the corridor towards her mother’s room after the .shriek. Therefore he concluded that whoever or whatever it was that fright- ened Mrs. Mayne at first, had frightened her a second time. He had glanced in the corner between the chest of drawers and the wall, at the window, the wardrobe, the curtains of the huge old- fashioned mahogany bedstead, and he was stooping to look under the sofa when Mary first saw him. But he did not go at her bidding. In point of fact, Godfrey’s mind was filled with Dick Wilding, and the new tricks that young man might be upto. The chamber was a large one, with two doors; one opened into: the corridor, facing the window ; the other into the dressing-room. Mary had not moved from her position by the bed. Mr. Mayne advanced, wanting to say a few private words to his wife, and would have put Mary aside; but she would not be put aside; she would not stir. Godfrey, his suspicions alert, though he knew not of what, noted this, and began to think she must be concealing something. It struck him that he might as well examine the dressing-room, and he was moving towards it when Mary left the bed with a hurried movement and placed herself in his way. “Please do not trouble to MPR further now,” she said; ‘ you disturb mamma.” Godfrey turned sharply back, sad went to the side of the bed where she had been standing. Then he saw what it was that she had been hiding. His eyes met hers, for she also had returned to the same spot = and Mary knew that he had seen the print of a man’s hand, soiled with damp, black mould upon the white counterpane. (Zo be continued. ) Gomichboo €o