The Argosy — page 286: what you’re looking at

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

The Mystery of Allan Grale. 267 Mrs. Grale sighed, took up a newspaper and sat down at the window. It was a Scotch newspaper, which had been directed to her in her sister Margaret’s handwriting. Such were almost the only tokens of remembrance which ever passed between the sisters, and even those had grown very far between, until Allan’s visit to Savoch had some- what freshened the old tie. Mrs. Grale read through two “trials,” and then Mary Anne came in again, looking very cross. “Well?” questioned Mrs. Grale. “T have knocked twice at his door—going and returning,” she said irritably. ‘The first time he gave some low, inarticulate groan ; the second time he condescended to give no answer at all.” “Dear me, perhaps he 1s ill,” exclaimed the mother, instantly taking the alarm. ‘‘ James,” she said, summoning the servant, “ Did Mr. Allan speak to you when you knocked ?” “T can hardly say, ma’am,” he replied. ‘‘ Mr. Allan very seldom does, so I rather think he did not to-day.” ““T dare say he stayed out very late and is sleeping heavily,” said Mary Anne. ‘But he is not in the habit of staying out very late. I think I shall go and see.” | Mrs. Grale felt uneasy. But the feeling was quite vague. Had she been stopped on her way upstairs, and asked if she seriously thought anything was wrong, she would have answered ‘“ No.” She rapped sharply on the door. Allan would know her touch, and he had never failed to answer her. It was only when her knock was received in dead silence, that she felt her heart suddenly faint within her, and her fear grew so strong that she almost seemed to hear a voice say, “It has come !” Had there been any watchers, they would have seen her comely face blanch suddenly. She did not delay a moment. She made a desperate rush at the door, as one does who expects to find it fastened. But it was not fastened. In a second she was inside the room. What had she thought to see? What she did see was an orderly apartment, which had evidently never been slept in or disturbed at all during the previous night. It was not the first time this had happened. Once, long before, Allan Grale, going to a bachelor dinner party, had done as many of the other young fellows did at it, and was not in a fit state to return home. | His mother recalled this with a heightened colour. But to forget himself in that way was not a common fault with Allan: and he had not been dining out last night. GoOnmilGaooks (SO) an