"Thank God," she said, in a shaking voice. "I thought it was you."

I pointed to the door, and she understood.

"Call out the windows at the other end of the house," I whispered.

"Run. Tell them not to wait for anything."

She went up the stairs at that, two at a time. Evidently she collided

with the candle, for it went out, and I was left in darkness.

I was really astonishingly cool. I remember stepping over the chair

and gluing my ear to the door, and I shall never forget feeling it give

an inch or two there in the darkness, under a steady pressure from

without. But the chair held, although I could hear an ominous cracking

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of one of the legs. And then, without the slightest warning, the

card-room window broke with a crash. I had my finger on the trigger of

the revolver, and as I jumped it went off, right through the door.

Some one outside swore roundly, and for the first time I could hear

what was said.

"Only a scratch. . . . Men are at the other end of the house. . . .

Have the whole rat's nest on us." And a lot of profanity which I won't

write down. The voices were at the broken window now, and although I

was trembling violently, I was determined that I would hold them until

help came. I moved up the stairs until I could see into the card-room,

or rather through it, to the window. As I looked a small man put his

leg over the sill and stepped into the room. The curtain confused him

for a moment; then he turned, not toward me, but toward the

billiard-room door. I fired again, and something that was glass or

china crashed to the ground. Then I ran up the stairs and along the

corridor to the main staircase. Gertrude was standing there, trying to

locate the shots, and I must have been a peculiar figure, with my hair

in crimps, my dressing-gown flying, no slippers, and a revolver

clutched in my hands I had no time to talk. There was the sound of

footsteps in the lower hall, and some one bounded up the stairs.

I had gone Berserk, I think. I leaned over the stair-rail and fired

again. Halsey, below, yelled at me.

"What are you doing up there?" he yelled. "You missed me by an inch."

And then I collapsed and fainted. When I came around Liddy was rubbing

my temples with eau de quinine, and the search was in full blast.

Well, the man was gone. The stable burned to the ground, while the

crowd cheered at every falling rafter, and the volunteer fire

department sprayed it with a garden hose. And in the house Alex and

Halsey searched every corner of the lower floor, finding no one.




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