fe. I remember planning, if I were not discovered,
who would have my things. I knew Liddy would want my heliotrope
poplin, and she's a fright in lavender. Once or twice I heard mice in
the partitions, and so I sat on the table, with my feet on the chair.
I imagined I could hear the search going on through the house, and once
some one came into the trunk-room; I could distinctly hear footsteps.

"In the chimney! In the chimney!" I called with all my might, and was
rewarded by a piercing shriek from Liddy and the slam of the trunk-room
door.

I felt easier after that, although the room was oppressively hot and
enervating. I had no doubt the search for me would now come in the
right direction, and after a little, I dropped into a doze. How long I
slept I do not know.

It must have been several hours, for I had been tired from a busy day,
and I wakened stiff from my awkward position. I could not remember
where I was for a few minutes, and my head felt heavy and congested.
Gradually I roused to my surroundings, and to the fact that in spite of
the ventilators, the air was bad and growing worse. I was breathing
long, gasping respirations, and my face was damp and clammy. I must
have been there a long time, and the searchers were probably hunting
outside the house, dredging the creek, or beating the woodland. I knew
that another hour or two would find me unconscious, and with my
inability to cry out would go my only chance of rescue. It was the
combination of bad air and heat, probably, for some inadequate
ventilation was coming through the pipes. I tried to retain my
consciousness by walking the length of the room and back, over and
over, but I had not the strength to keep it up, so I sat down on the
table again, my back against the wall.

The house was very still. Once my straining ears seemed to catch a
footfall beneath me, possibly in my own room. I groped for the chair
from the table, and pounded with it frantically on the floor. But
nothing happened: I realized bitterly that if the sound was heard at
all, no doubt it was classed with the other rappings that had so
alarmed us recently.

It was impossible to judge the flight of time. I measured five minutes
by counting my pulse, allowing seventy-two beats to the minute. But it
took eternities, and toward the last I found it hard to count; my head
was confused.

And then--I heard sounds from below me, in the house. There was a
peculiar throbbing, v