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.
The truth of my story was shown by the broken window and the
overturned chair. That the unknown had got up-stairs was almost
impossible.
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