Argosy, Vol. 85, No. 3 — page 113: what you’re looking at

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

FACING A CRISIS. open roll-top desk, and took from a pigeonhole in the desk an electric flash- light. Then she opened the door of the stairway and went softly to the floor above. She shuddered as she passed the open trap above the stairway, and had difficulty in repressing a scream when some unseen creature flapped loudly almost in her very face. But she held herself,in and indulged in a little smile at,her own fear. She re- membered that bats held high carnival at night in this. ghostly place. Harden Brooke had told her so more than once. The bat flew out of one of the big window openings, and Letha went about her investigations with businesslike com- posure. That she was possessed of strong nerves, notwithstanding her delicate frame and sweet face, has been demon- strated already. She felt that she needed all her nerve now. On the other hand, she did not hesitate in the task she had set herself, which was to find the will for which Marcus Tolman had demanded a thousand dollars. He had been indiscreet enough to ad- mit that it was “not a thousand miles ” from the farmhouse, and Letha had soon come to the conclusion that if old John Landon had secreted it anywhere, most probably it was here among these ancient beams and rafters. She had been up here before, and had noticed the star and arrow cut into the beams even before Marion, who had ac- companied her, pointed them out. She had seen the initials, ‘ J. L.” too. When Tolman talked about the will, it was natural for Letha to associate these sym- bols and letters with the unknown hiding- place. That Tolman had taken her brother-in- law away from the schoolhouse she felt sure. Also, she believed his disappearance had something to do with this will that Tolman meant to turn to his own profit. Her purpose was to obtain possession of it before the rascal could get it. Then she could bargain with him on behalf of 455 the unfortunate John Landon, who was so pitifully unable to take care of himself. The swinging beam under which had been hidden the Bates jewelry, and where Harden Brooke had found the old coins, was still displaced, and it did not take a girl of Letha Severly’s quickness of ap- prehension long to understand the prin- ciple on which it had been made to move when properly manipulated. She argued that other beams might be swung aside if one knew the secret of them. So she tried two of them, but with- out result. Then she turned the light of her flash on the arrow and star alternately, until, with a low ejaculation of satisfac- tion, she believed she had hit on the solution. | Examining the star closely, she noted that it had five rays. Also that one ray was noticeably longer than any of the others. Taking this as a guide, she found that it pointed to a place midway between two of the beams. For a moment she was at a loss. Then, throwing her light upon the arrow, she observed that it aimed in the same parallel direction as the long ray of the star, but three feet to the left. Between the two imaginary lines was a beam. A pause for inspection and calculation, and Letha was working to remove a wooden tongue like that which had been found by Harden in another beam, and which he had accidentally broken off. | It did not take her long to decide that she must have some sharp tool to get the tongue out. She looked about her, but there was nothing there. A little shrug of vexation, and down she went cautiously to the kitchen, where she knew a box of carpenter’s tools was kept. In a few minutes she was up again, with a chisel and hatchet. Naturally handy, it did not take her long, with the aid of these implements, to extract the tongue. Then, with slight exertion, she swung the beam aside and upward, revealing the same sort of cavity as that in which Harden had so vainly secreted the Bates jewelry, comicloool C©