Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 12, 1927 — page 116: what you’re looking at

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

Bee So ee Be cise ae Seip ET Pan rang SNe ee a I Oa a i Tin el Dea ea oe a ee ee es In ne a = = eS a? ‘aie, ~ = > 5 = < z ESS oe ee : Se to a SS Be Ss z<s z “s = 2. = . - 110 third story when the deputy was thrown over the banisters; the will of the late judge bequeathing a good sum of money to the mozo; all these facts put together made an irrefutable case. ‘“T advise calling the sheriff immediate- ly,” I said. 3 But the doctor demurred. “I have spoken to Miss Shirley, making that very suggestion; but she has begged me to wait one more night. I gave her my promise. We three can watch the mozo’s room. There is no chance of his climbing out of his window. We can take turns. Then when morning comes I’ll have another talk with Miss Shirley, and lay the whole case before her.” We were satisfied to do this. Cronk in particular wanted one more night to make his experiment in spirit photography. To call in the law might upset the equilibrium which had been so receptive to spiritualistic phenomena during the last three eventful ‘nights. Thus it was that we entered upon our fourth night. It all happened very suddenly. I look back upon it as a cataclysm descending upon the house. A few minutes before it happened the wind, which had been freshening all eve- ning and all night up until midnight, re- doubled in its force. It was an atmospheric disturbance com- mon to the marsh country after a big storm. It is called by the people in the Gulf States the “little brother” to the hurricane. Occasionally it comes a month after the main disturbance, sometimes with- in a few days. This particular wind was of no other importance to our fate, except that it gave the air a peculiarly electric twitchy feeling, as Cronk says, “ which was propitious for manifestations.” From a more practical point of view, it was important in that it blew out the lamp which lit the hall where I was sitting. This lamp was on a table just outside the mozo’s door, and I sat there writing. I immediately fumbled for matches, but in the flurry of excitement that gripped —_ = os =e 4 = Se Se - - en Be : SAS aed ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. few moments I groped, and was aware of a doleful shrieking of the wind, which until now I had not noticed. A shutter was banging somewhere, and the rattan screen of a window inside of my room was flap- ping and whistling. I also heard some one running up the stairs. Of course, in my disordered imagination I pictured the judge wandering in out of the tempest as he had done in the lobby when the hurricane was blowing. But this step was not the uncertain, slow movement which had characterized the step we had heard mounting these same stairs a few nights before. It was running. I believe it was some one run- ning on all fours. You have heard a boy run upstairs, using both hands and feet. That was what this sounded like. My first impulse was to call for Cronk, who was down on the second floor at the time, waiting outside the door of the judge’s room—which was now unlocked. He was waiting for the appearance of that light which I had seen through the open transom the night before. He told me this morning that he had seen the light. He also told me that he heard the pattering of feet running up the stairs. He said he believed something opened the judge’s door and came out, brushing past him. A fit of fear prevented him from either reaching out or crying to me. The same sort of fit, I must confess; took hold of me. I do not know where the doctor was. He was perhaps lying down in his room. At any rate, what hap- pened occurred with no one on that third- story gallery except myself—and this thing that came up the stairs on all fours. Although my fear was enough to tighten my throat and numb me sufficiently to pre- vent me from yelling, it did not paralyze my limbs. I was thinking of Shirley. I was desperately anxious to get this whole terrible game over with. I waited, my heart pounding like a bird’s, as the pattering of feet stopped. It stopped on the landing not ten feet away from me. I had the impression then that the Thing was tiptoeing toward me. The whistling a as ie =< SE PL tans WS x ~ eae ~. ~ eo ~- =< x ; eee = = 2 Taw =< ~ -- et << - — So <= comicbooks.com