THE BEE: OMAHA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1918.
11
The Abandoned Room
' By Wadsworth Camp.
CHAPTER XIV
The Crying Through the Woods.
Bobby's inability to cry out alone
prevented his alarming the others
nd announcing to Paredes and
Doctor Groom his unlawful pres
ence in the room. During the mom
ent that the shock held him, silent,
motionless, bent in the darkness
above the bed. he understood there
could have been no ambiguity about
his ghastly and loathsome experi
ence. The dead detective had al
tered his position as Silas Blackburn
had done, and this time someone
had been in the room and suffered
the appalling change. Bobby's fin
gers still responded to the charnel
feeling of cold, inactive flesh sud
denly become alive and potent be
neath his touch. And a reason for
apparent miracle offered itself. Be
tween the extinction of his candle
and the commencement of that
movement! only a seco: 1 or so
the evidence had disappeared from
the detective's pocket.
Bobby relaxed. He stumbled
across the room and into the cor
ridor. He went with hands out
stretched through the blackness for
no candle burned in the upper hall,
but he knew that Katherine was on
guard there. When he left the pas
sage he- saw her, an unnatural figure
herself, in the yellowish, unhealthy
twilight which sifted through the
stair well from the lamp in the hall
below.
She must have sensed something
out of the way immediately, for
she hurried to meet him and her
whisper held no assurance.
"You got the cast and the hai.J
kerchief, Bobby?"
And when he didn't answer at
once she asked with a sharp rush
of fear:
"What's the matter- What's hap
pened?" He shuddered. At last he man
aged to speak.
"Katherine! I have felt death
cease to be death."
Later he was to recall that phrase
with a sicker horror than he ex
perienced now.
"You saw something'" she said,
"But your candle is out. There is
1. 1 light in the room."
He took her hand. He pressed it.
"You're real!" he said with a ner
vous laugh. "Something I can un
derstand. Everything is unreal.
This light "
He strode to the table, found a
match, and lighted his candle. Kath
erine, as she saw his face, drew
back.
'Bobby!"
"My candle went out." he said
dully, "and he moved through the
darkness. I tell you he moved be-
nealh my hand.
She drew farther away, staring
at him.
"You were frightened "
"No. If we so there with a light
now," he said with the same dull
conviction, "we will find him as we
fou::d my grandfather this after
noon." The monotonous voices of the
three men in the lower hall weaved
a background for their whispers.
The normal, familiar sound was like
a tonic. Bobby straightened. Kath
erine threw off the spell of his an
nouncement. . I
i-"But the evidence I You got" J
She stared at his empty hands. He
fancied that he saw contempt in her
cyeS.
'In spite of everything you must
go back. You must get that."
"Even if I had the courage," he
said wearily, "it would be no use,
for the evidence is gone."
"But I saw it. At least I saw
his pocket"
"It was there," he answered, "when
my light went out. I did put my
hand in his pocket. In that second
it was gone."
"There was no one there," she
said, "no one but you, because I
watched."
He leaned heavilv against the
wall.
"Good God. Katherine! It's ton
big. Whatever it is, we can't fight
it."
She looked for some time down
the corridor at the black entrance
ot the sinister room. At last she
turned and walked to the banister.
She called:
"Hartley! Will you come up?"
Bobby wondered at the steadiness
of h:r voice. The murmuring be
low ceased. Graham ran up the
stairs. Her summons had been warn
ing enough. Their attitudes, as
Graham reached the upper hall, were
eloquent of Bobby's failure.
' "You didn't get the cast and the
handkerchief?" he said.
Bobby told briefly who had hap-r.enpd.
"What is one to do?" he ended..
"Even the dead are against me.
"It's beyond belief," Graham said
roughly.
He snatched up the candle and
entered the corridor. Uncertainly
Katherine and Bobby followed him.
He went straight to the bed and
thrust the candle beneath the cano
py. The others could see from the
door the change that had taken
place. The body of Howells was
turned awkwardly on its side. The
coat pocket was, as Bobby had de
scribed it, flat and empty.
Katherine turned and went back
to the hall. Graham's hand shook
s Bobby's had shaken.
"No tricks, Bobby?"
Bobby couldn't resent the sus
picion which appeared to offer the
only explanation of what had hap
pened. The candle flickered in the
draft.
"Look out!" Bobby warned.
The misshapen shadows danced
with a multiple vivacity across tne
walls. Graham shaded the candle
Rame, and the shadows became like
morbid decorations, gargantuan and
motionless.
"It's madness," Graham said.
"There's no explanation of this that
we can understand."
Howells' straight smile mocked
them. As if in answer to Graham
1 voice sighed through the room. Its
quality was one with the shadows,
unsubstantial and shapeless. Bobby
grasped one of the bed posts and
braced himself, listening. The candle
in Graham's hand commenced to
flicker again, and Bobby knew that
it hadn't been his fancy, for Graham
istened, too.
It shook again through the heavy,
oppressive night, merely accentua
ted by the candlea faint ululation
barely detaching itself from silence,
straying after a time into the silence
again. 'At first it was like the griet
of a woman heard at a great dis
tance. But the sound, while it
gained no strength, forced on them
more and more an abhorrent sense
of intimacy. This crying from an in
finite distance filled the room, seem
ing finally to have its source in the
room itself. After it had sobbed
thinly into nothing, its pulsations
continued to sigh in Bobby's ears.
They seemed timed to the renewed
and eccentric dancing of the amor
phous shadows.
Graham straightened and placed
the'candle on the bureau. He seemed
more startled than he had been at
the unbelievable secretiveness of a
dead man.
"You heard it?" Bobby breathed.
Graham nodded.
"What was it? Where did you
think it came from?" Bobby de
manded. "It was like someone
mourning for this this poor devil."
Graham couldn't disguise his
effort to elude the somber specter
of the room, to drive from his brain
the illusion of the unearthly moan
ing. "It must have come from outside
the house," he answered. "There's
no use giving way to fancies where
there's a possible explanation. It
must have come from outside from
some woman in great agony of
mind."
Bobby recalled his perception of
a woman moving with a curious
absence of sound about the edges
of the stagnant lake. He spoke of it
to Graham.
"I couldn't be sure it was a wo
man, but there's no house within
two miles. What would a woman
be doing wandering around the
Cedars?"
"At any rate, there are three wo
men in the house," Graham said"
"Katherine and the two servants,
Ella and Jane. The maids are bad
ly frightened. It may have come
from the servants' quarters. It must
have been one of them."
But Bobby saw that Graham
didn't believe either of the maids had
released that poignant suffering.
"It didn't sound like a living
voice," he said simply.
"Then how are we to take it?"
Graham persisted angrily. "I shall
question Katherine and the two
maids."
He took up the candle with a
stubborn effort to recapture his old
forcefulness, but as they left the
room the shadows thronged thickly
after them in ominous pursuit; and
if wasn't necessary to question
Katherine. She stood in the corri
dor, her lips parted, her face white
and shocked.
"What was it?" she said. "That
nearly silent grief?"
She put her hands to iier ears,
lowering them helplessly after a
moment.
"Where did you think it came
from?" Graham asked.
"From a long ways off," she an
swered. "Then I I thought it must
be in the room with you, and 1
wondered if you saw "
Graham shook his head.
"We saw nothing. It was prob
ably Ella or Jane. They've been
badly frightened. Perhaps a night
mare, or they've heard us moving
around the front part of the house.
I am going to see."
Katherine and Bobby followed
hinj - downstairs. Dr. Groom and
Paredes stood in front of the fire
place, questioningly looking up
ward. Paredes didn't speak at first,
but Dr. Groom burst out in his
grumbling, bass voice:
"What's been going on up there?"
"Did you hear just now a queer
crving?" Graham asked.
"Xo."
"You, Paredes?"
"I've heard nothing," Paredes
answered, "except Dr. Groom's dis
quieting theories. It's an uncanny
hour for such talk. What kind of
a cry may I ask?"
"Like a woman moaning," Bobby
said, "and, doctor, Howells has
changed his position."
"What are you talking about?"
the doctor cried.
"He has turned on his side as
Mr. Blackburn did," Graham told
him.
Paredes glanced at Bobby.
"And how was this new mys
tery discovered?"
Bobby caught the implication.
Then the Panamanian clung to his
slyly expressed doubt of Katherine
which might, after all, have had its
impulse in an instinct of self-preservation.
Bobby knew that Graham
and Katherine would guard the fash
ion in which the startling discovery
had been made. Before he could
speak for himself, indeed, Graham
was answering Parades:
"This crying seemed after a time
to come from the room. We en
tered." ,
"But Miss Katherine called you
up," Paredes said. "I supposed she
had heard again movements in the
room."
Bobby managed a smile.
"You see, Carlos, nothing is con
sistent in this case."
Paredes bowed gravely, g
"It is very curious a woman
should cry about the house."
"The servants mav make it seem
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natural enough," Graham said. "Will
you come, Bobby?"
As they crossed the dining room
they heard a stirring in the kitchen.
Graham threw open the door. Jen
kins stood at the foot of the serv
ants' stair. The old butler had
lighted a candle and placed it
on the mantel. The disorder of his
clothing suggested the haste with
which he had left his bed and come
downstairs. He advanced with an
expression of obvious relief.
"I was just coming to find you,
Mr. Robert."
"What's up?" Bobby asked. "A
little while ago I thought you were
all asleep back here."
"One of the women awakened
him," Graham said. "It's just as
I thought."
"Was that it?" the old butler ask
ed with a quick relief. But imme
diately he shook his head. "It
couldn't have been that, Mr.
Graham, for I stopped at Ella's and
Jane's doors, and there was no
sound. They seemed to be asleep.
And it wasn't like that."
"You mean," Bobby said, "that
you heard a woman crying?"
Jenkins nodded. "It woke me
up."
"If you didn't think it was one of
the maids," Graham asked, "what
did you make of it?"
"I thought it came from outside.
I thought it was a woman prowling
around the house. Then I said to
myself, why should a woman prowl
around the Cedars? And it was too
unearthly, sir, and I remembered the
way Mr. Silas was murdered, and
the awful thing that happened to h's
body this afternoon, and I you
won't think me foolish, sirs? I
doubted if it was a human voice I
had heard."
"No," Graham said dryly, "we
won't think you foolish."
"So I thought I'd better wake
you up and tell you."
Graham turned to Bobby.
"Katherine and you and I," he
said, "fancied the crying was in the
room with us. Jenkins is sure it
came from outside the house. That
is significant."
"Wherever it came from," Bobby
said softly, "it was like some one
mourning for Howells."
Jenkins started.
"The policeman!"
Glasses "Correctly" Fitted
O.J.BRADSHAW j
Doctor ef Ophthalmology
Securities Bldf.
322 (Third Floor).
16th and Farnam.
Bobby remembered that Jenkins
hadn't been aroused by the discov
ery of Howell's murder.
"You'd know in a few minutes
anyway," he said. "Howells has
been killed as my grandfather was."
Jenkins moved back, a look of un
belief and awe in his wrinkled face.
"He boasted he was going to sleep
in that room," he whispered.
Bobby studied Jenkins, not know
ing what to make of the old man,
for into the awe of the wrinkled
face had stolen a postitive relief, an
emotion that bordered on the tri
umphant. "It's terrible," Jenkins whispered.
Graham grasped his shoulder.
"What's the matter with you,
Jenkins? One would say you were
glad."
"Xo. Oh, no sir. It is terrible. I
was only wondering about the po
liceman's report."
"What do you know about his re
port?" Bobby cried. ,-
"Only that that he gave it to me
to mail just before he went up to
the old room."
"You mailed it?" Graham snap
ped. Jenkins hesitated. When he an
swered his voice was self-accusing.
"I'm an old coward, Mr. Robert.
The policeman told me the letter
was very important, and if any
thing happened to it I would get in
trouble. He couldn't afford to leave
the house himself, he said. But, as
I say, I'm a coward, and I didn't
want to walk through the woods to
the box by the gate. I figured it
all out. It wouldn't be taken up
until early in the morning, and if
I waited until daylight it would
only be delayed one collection. So
I made up my mind I'd sleep 'on it,
because I knew he had it in for you,
Mr. Robert. I supposed I'd mail it
in the morning, but I decided I'd
think it over anyway and not har
row myself walking through the
woods."
"You've done a good job,"
Graham said excitedly. "Where is
the report now?"
"In my room. Shall I fetch it,
sir?"
Graham nodded, and Jenkins shuf
fled up the stairs.
"What luck!" Graham said
"Hi-iwpIIq mint have telenhonpd his
suspicions to the district attorney.
He must have mentioned the evi
dence, but what does that amount to
since it's disappeared along with the
duplicate of the report, if Howells
made one?"
"I can fight with a clear . con
science,'" Bobby cried. I "wasn't
asleep when Howell's body altered
its position. Do you realize what
that means to me? For once I was
wide awake when the old room was
as its tricks."
"If Howells were alive," Graham
answered shortly, "he would look on
the fact that you were awake nd
alone with the body as the worst
possible evidence against you."
Bobby's elation died.
"There is always something to
tangle me in the eyes of the law
with these mysteries. But I know,
and I'll fight. Can you find any
trace of a conspiracy against me in
this last ghastly adventure?"
"It complicates everything,"
Graham admitted.
"It's beyond sounding," Bobby
said, "for my grandfather's death
last night and the disturbance of
his body this afternoon seemed cal
culated to condemn me absolutely,
yet Howell's murder and the move
ment of his body, with the disap
pearance of the cast and the hand
kerchief, seem designed to save me.
Are there two influences at work
in this house one" for me one
against me?"
"Let's think of the human ele
ments," Graham answered with a
frown. "I have no faith in Parades.
My man has failed to report on
Maria. That's queer. You fancy a
woman in black slipping through
the woods, and we hear a woman
cry. I want to account for those
things before I give in to Groom's
spirits. I confess at times they
seem the only logical explanation.
Here's Jenkins."
"If trouble comes of his with
holding the report I'll take the
blame," Bobby said.
Graham snatched the long en
velope from Jenkins' hand. It was
addressed in a firm hand to the dis
trict attorney at the county seat.
"There's no question," Graham
said. "That's it. We mustn't open
it. We'd better not destroy it. Put
it where it won't be easily found,
Jenkins. If you are questioned you
have no recollection of Howells
having given it to you. Mr. Black
burn promises he will see you get
in no trouble."
The old man smiled.
"Trouble!" he scoffed. "Mr.
Blackburn needn't fret himself
about me. He's the last of this fam
ily that is Miss Katherine and he.
I'm old and about done for. I
don't mind trouble. Not a bit,
sir."
Bobby pressed his hand. His
voice was a little husky: "I didn't
think you'd go that far in my serv
ice, Jenkins."
The old butler smiled slyly: "I'd
go a lot further than that, sir."
"We'd better get back," Graham
said. "The blood hounds ought to
be here, and they'll sniff at the case
harder than ever because it's done
for Howells."
They watched Jenkins go upstairs
with the report.
(To Be Continued Tomorrow.)
Woman Demands $89
When Clothes Are Wet
by City Filling Hose
A little misdirected water may
cost the city $89.
Mrs. W. W. Dawson said her
clothing was damaged to that ex
tent when a hose being used to fill
a city flushing wagon at Thirteenth
and Farnam streets became dis
connected and splashed her from
head to foot.
She asks for $17.50 for a hat;
$42.50 for a dress; $14 for shoes:
$7.50 for a silk petticoat and $7.50
for a pair of gloves.
Commissioner Butler said his de
partment paid for cleaning and
pressing the damaged clothes.
But Mrs. Dawson demands that
they be replaced.
All of which goes to show the
high cost of women's attire 1
Woman Found Dead in Room.
Viola Oliver, 2327 South Six
teenth street, age 55 years, negro
cook at the Merriam hotel, was
found dead in her room by police
Tuesday morning. It is believed
that she has been dead for several
days. She is said to have died of
influenza.
Brk City Neivs
Lighting Fixture Burgess-Granden
Have Root lYInt tt Beacon Tress.
Dr. L. K. Moon, 429 Brandeis Bldff.
Agnlnst Skip-Stop Man Tho West
Leavenworth Improvers have voted
against the skip-stop plan tot street
cars.
Wounded Soldiers Knroute Forty
wounded soldiers, traveling In hospi
tal oars and destined for Pacific
coast points will arrive in Omaha
Wednesday over the Northwestern
and depart over the Union Pacific.
Hml Load of Boone Doshun Molt
simovieh, South Omaha baker, was
arrested at Plattsmouth, Neb., with
340 pints of whisky and was taken
to Lincoln Tuesday to enter a plea
before federal court, in session here.
Want to Locate Henry Kehi
Postottlce authorities have been
asked to help locate Henry Kehi,
who 16 years . go lived at 1225 South
Sixteenth street. His son. William
Kdward Kehi, 723 Twelfth avenue,
Seattle, Wash., wants to get into
communication with him.
Many nt Brotherhood Dinner
The Brotherhood dinner at the North
Presbyterian church Monday night
was well attended, covers having
been laid for close to 150 men. The
dinner was served by the women of
the church and was thoroughly en
Joyed. One of the features of the
evening was the address of Dr. Weir,
head of the brotherhood. He de
tailed what the organization is ac
complishing in the way of church
activities and the interest that it is
creating in the religious societies of
the Presbyterian church. Dr. Weir
was introduced by N. H. Loomls of
the First Presbyterian church.
Fine fireplace goods at Sunderland's.
Suit Over Car of Beer
Proves Eight Years Old
A case wherein the Jetter Brew
ing company is suing the Northwest
ern Railroad company for $125
damages for the alleged delay in the
delivery of one carload of beer was
being heard in Judge Leslie's court
Tuesday morning. However, the ex
citement all died down when it was
brought out that the shipment was
made in the year of 1910, and the
only feature of the case is the gulp
ing of dry parched throats every
time "a carload of beer" is men
tioned before the jury and court at
tendants.
ess-Mash to
Vfie Ctristmas Store for &veryodt
Tuesday, December 3, 1918-
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