Room Number 3, and Other Detective Stories

o with what is taking place behind his back. His duty is here, to guide and support this rapidly-descending figure now almost within his reach. And he fulfi

leap the flames; beneath the other crouches their secret enemy. They cannot meet the first and live; needs must they face the latter. Bullets do not always strike the mark, as witness the two they had escaped. B

to follow her, but felt his courage fail and his strength ooze without knowing the cause. Had a bullet struck him? He did not feel it. He was conscious of the

n yells from below, but th

e his fainting eyes the sight of Miss Demarest’s face turned his way from the crowd below, with all the terror of a woman’s bleeding heart behind it. The joy which this recognition brought cleared his brain and gave him strength to struggle

He knew the voice. His rescue had relieved one heart. His own beat

t his feet was clasping his knees in thankfulness, another sinking in a faint at the edge of the shadow, but he saw neither, for t

n my forehead. He’s a murderer and a thief, and I order you

from his brow, he caught at the nearest man, and with one glance toward the t

the spot just below the dangling sheet. It’s a bullet-hole. It was made while I crouched the

ked man. He knew that I knew it and he locked my door when he saw

ew minutes nothing but chase was in any man’s mind. That part of the building in which lay hidden the room of shadows shook, tottered, and fell, loading the heavens with sparks and lighting up the pursuit now become as wild and reckless as the scene itself. To Miss Demarest’s eyes, just struggling back to sight and hearing from the nethermost depths of uncons

the tavern himself, to hide his crime and do away with the one man who knew about it. I know that

with terror and excitement. Then one of them drew back, cry

the hollow shell and smoking pile which were all that remained to mark the scene of yesterday’s events, he looked about among the half-clad, shivering men a

as the other quickly approached. “Fi

at experiences for me. When they found I was not likely to perish in the flames they resorted to shooting. I bel

an the clerk? Di

he roof engaged in res

d him, of course, as soon as yo

ck of me in t

y? What ab

miss

rs. Qu

are the only perso

in the

lice. They would certainly look out for themselves. Doctor Golden, it was

by what Hammersmith had already told him, showed but

ll hold to

llecting in all directions, drew the coroner aside and in a few graphic words related the night’s occurrences and th

is face distinctly looking toward you

ion. It was malignant in the extreme, quite u

window

th pointe

re? Searched the r

s soon as it was li

fou

not even

ps. We’ll have to put the screws on Jake. A conspira

He doesn’t think his master and

ell, we’ll see.

as his former experience had led him to expect. Save for a slight nervous trembling of limb and shoulder — surely not

veyed him with be

id this fire st

but he mellowed it won

on’t carry a watch, so I

s well enough. How came you to be completely dre

. There was dea

were in

a newspaper. My room is in the stable, the little one high in the cock-loft. I did not find the paper at once and when I did I stopped to read a few lines. I’m a slow

ave not heard that you

ved anywhere else for the last ten years, and to see my home on fire was mor

smith. What sort of fellow was this! A giant with the air of a child, a rascal with the smile of a h

n inner door. The coroner understood and turned b

Mr. Quimby when you w

he ho

lee

making up hi

he of

es

as where yo

, it

king out of your window just

oment. With something between a hitch and a shrug, he drew himself upright

d him. “The man beh

his finger at that moment it would doubtless have been snapped with

roner repeated. “Mr. Quimby’

s had got a start. One don’t see in the dark. They hadn’t got much of a

n; before Mr. Hammersmith here ha

fter I left the stable. You can’t

ake a clean breast of it. It may help you and it won’t hurt Quimby. Begin w

Quimby told you is true. You nee

dreaded by the inquisitor. Hammersmith realised the difficulties of the situation and repeated the gesture he had previously

who are not. A night such as you have been through quickens the conscience of women if it does not that of men. One has been

y. Women have easy tongues; they talk

ked to be confronted with you? Have her in, Mr. Hammersmith

tioned, opened it and let in Huldah, this token of bravado gave way to a ve

o say except that she was mighty fortunate not

rsmith that she could tell things and would, if he brought her face to face with the man who tried to shoot him while he was helping her down from the roof. Would her indignation hold out under the insinuating smile with which the artful

red of me. If you’re not, why did you fire

ve — locking your door. He had some game up. I don

ence. Hammersmith trembled for the success of their venture. Would this blond young giant’s sturdy figure and provoking smile prevail against the good sense which mus

hen, those bullets? You might have killed me

h accompanied it. Both were very artful and betrayed resources not to be expected from one of h

ould yo

you nor the man helping you could escape. A death of that kind is horrible. I loved you to

fficials. The plea was so specious, and

believe you?”

thin, plain hoop of gold worth possibly a couple of dollars, but which in her eyes seemed to possess an incalculable value, for she had no sooner

d bough

returned it

,” he si

the protesting murmur of the discomfited Hammersmith,

both. If you will let him go, I’ll be more thankful than when you helped me down

the coroner

f him as you have. I think he’s deceiving you and that you are a very foolish girl to trust him. Me

nything agai

going to tell

I was f

ool who have just been i

g girl,” she muttered almost sullenly. “What shoul

em dreadful?” It was D

she violently declared. “

an tell us? Don’t look

t to say. I don’t eve

k in the house has been

e rooms — some of them

ont rooms, rear

t; those on th

imes went into

en down

y of the rooms there —

work didn’t t

e heard of

e, and wasn’t often used. No girl liked to go there. A man w

eard any one des

, s

paper was o

, s

an help us. He’s bee

you saw it yourselves yesterday,” bl

r any other colour

en in the house

an to say that this room has no

’t remember every time

to remember

hy

curious circumstanc

ow of any c

to say about a room whose walls we

very expressive. Huldah

tradiction of the tone he had taken the day before. “Her description was quite vivid. It wou

dulous smile from Jake; dead silence

lden’s lips with all the vehe

d its regular rise and fall; then the clerk laughed sharply and

it a very curious quin — quin —— What’s th

Hammersmith’s ear, as the latter stepped his way, “or just the

e furnishing of the place, and when Hammersmith raised it, there appeared lying underne

etween the breaking out of the fire and Mr. Hammersmith’s escape from the room. Come closer; yo

down at the pieces before him. The blue paper peeling away from the pink made it impossible for him to deny that j

have failed from his having chosen a spot for his experiment whe

. “She must have a great eye; a — a —(another hard word! What is it now?) Well! no matter. One of the kind what sees through the outside of thin

nt on these bits, not so long by any means as a woman’s natural curiosity would seem t

which, though much more searching and rigorous than the first, resulted in the single discovery that for all his specious love-making he cared no more for the girl than fo

er believe that now,”

him into showing her

e’s warned, she’s warned, and

romising,” muttered D

by a sudden sound

declared Hammersmith in

straw in her hair from some sheltering hayrick and in her hand a heavy gold chain which, as the morni

amonds, and the woman who held t

ering a piteous cry, he bounded from t

uimby!” and sought to kiss her hand a

their eyes stole behind them, and simultaneously both started back for the outhouse they had just lef

s done our little trick for us. She will talk n