FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   >>   >|  
ght in the clothes shaft, its end resting against the wall between the first and second floors. I turned to Mary. "This is due to your carelessness," I said. "If we had all been murdered in our beds it would have been your fault." She shivered. "Now, not a word of this through the house, and send Alex to me." The effect on Alex was to make him apoplectic with rage, and with it all I fancied there was an element of satisfaction. As I look back, so many things are plain to me that I wonder I could not see at the time. It is all known now, and yet the whole thing was so remarkable that perhaps my stupidity was excusable. Alex leaned down the chute and examined the ladder carefully. "It is caught," he said with a grim smile. "The fools, to have left a warning like that! The only trouble is, Miss Innes, they won't be apt to come back for a while." "I shouldn't regard that in the light of a calamity," I replied. Until late that evening Halsey and Alex worked at the chute. They forced down the ladder at last, and put a new bolt on the door. As for myself, I sat and wondered if I had a deadly enemy, intent on my destruction. I was growing more and more nervous. Liddy had given up all pretense at bravery, and slept regularly in my dressing-room on the couch, with a prayer-book and a game knife from the kitchen under her pillow, thus preparing for both the natural and the supernatural. That was the way things stood that Thursday night, when I myself took a hand in the struggle. CHAPTER XXIII WHILE THE STABLES BURNED About nine o'clock that night Liddy came into the living-room and reported that one of the housemaids declared she had seen two men slip around the corner of the stable. Gertrude had been sitting staring in front of her, jumping at every sound. Now she turned on Liddy pettishly. "I declare, Liddy," she said, "you are a bundle of nerves. What if Eliza did see some men around the stable? It may have been Warner and Alex." "Warner is in the kitchen, miss," Liddy said with dignity. "And if you had come through what I have, you would be a bundle of nerves, too. Miss Rachel, I'd be thankful if you'd give me my month's wages to-morrow. I'll be going to my sister's." "Very well," I said, to her evident amazement. "I will make out the check. Warner can take you down to the noon train." Liddy's face was really funny. "You'll have a nice time at your sister's," I went on
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126  
127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Warner

 
things
 

kitchen

 

ladder

 

stable

 

nerves

 
bundle
 
turned
 

sister

 

CHAPTER


Thursday

 

struggle

 

STABLES

 

BURNED

 

natural

 
prayer
 

supernatural

 
pillow
 

preparing

 

morrow


declare

 

pettishly

 

jumping

 
thankful
 

dignity

 

Rachel

 

staring

 

housemaids

 
declared
 

reported


living

 

Gertrude

 
sitting
 

amazement

 

evident

 

corner

 
worked
 
fancied
 

element

 

apoplectic


effect
 

satisfaction

 

remarkable

 

shivered

 

resting

 

clothes

 

floors

 
murdered
 

carelessness

 
stupidity