THE NEXT DOOR APARTMENT

�CHAPTER ON

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coat, thrown carelessly open to the cold night wind, displayed an expanse of white indicative of evening dress. As he walked his heels clicked sharply on the concrete with the forceful fi

another figure, that of a stocky, broadshouldered man, who despite his bulk and weight moved silently and

paused suddenly and stood

battleships, their fighting-tops lost in the shadows of the opposite hills. Beside them, obscure, with no lights visible, lay the great transports

ahead were riveted. His shadower, evidently much concerned in his actions, crept slo

shes, a pause, two flashes, a pause, and then a single flash. It was such a light as might have been made by a pocket torch, a feeble ray barely strong enough to carry to the adjacent sho

nal intended for the ey

s eyes toward the ship as if expecting a following signal, then he turned and gazed aloft at the

feet away but half sheltered by a doorway, st

rs impatiently and set off again down the Drive, from time to time turning his head to watch the spot from which the si

orward over her shoulders, about which she had placed for warmth's sake a quilted negligee. Jane Strong was far too excited to sleep. An hour before she had come in from a wonderful party. The

deas in her over-stimulated brain, almost as a new discovery, the fact that her country was really engaged in war, that the men, the very men whom she knew best, were most of them fighting, or soon going to fight in a foreign land. Suddenly she found herself v

to be sure, were fun but hardly any one was giving parties this year. The Stantons had entertained only because their lieutenant son was going abroad soon, and they wished him to have a ple

he pushed up the window softly and looked out. In the distance she saw a man approaching, striding bris

im. Nearer and nearer they came. In tense expectation she waited, sensing so

igarette. His shadow paused, too, but some incaut

tening. All at once he wheeled about, discovering the man close behind him. He sprang at once for his pursuer. T

unning feet of both men just around the corner. What was happening? The running feet came to an abrupt sto

and lingered there disturbingly. Why had one of these men been shadowing

ard? What was happening around the corner? Her fears rapidly growing, she wa

all she had merely seen two

eing laughed at. Besides, Dad was always cross when suddenly awakened

window. Something terrible, something tragic, she was sure must have happened. Mustering up her strength and trying to calm her fears she was about to put down the window wh

e first man. She recognized him at once by his top-hat and his evening clothes. He was walking even more briskly than before, almost running. There was no sign

ered if it could b

ant full on his face. Jane looked and shuddered. Never in all her life had she seen any man's countenance

fulness, she recognized him, not as any one she knew, but m

er identification, as he approached the building, the young man cast a swift gla

in at th

ie down but shiveringly waited. Presently she heard the elevator stop. She heard the key opening the door of the next apartment. In a few minutes she heard the

ed in which the young man next door had played a tragic, perhaps even a crim

en on his face. She wondered what had been th

ouses so in Jane's home all the tenants were utter strangers to each other, one family not even knowing the names of any of the others. Occasionally, to be sure, one rather resentfully rode up or down in the elevator with some of the other

ung chap whom she had just seen entering. But what their names were, or their business, or how long they had lived there, or whether they were father and son, what servants they kept, or whet

t--she could not recall that any one had told her or how she had got t

more troubled dreams she was not aware, but it was noon the next da

e servant, "about that suicide last night

, at once wide-awake and

ide street right by our buildi

f a looking

. "He was taken away before I was up. Cook tells me i

was

through the heart and us sleeping here an' not knowing any

dings round took a look at the body, but none of the

in the afternoon

r at once," di

with one cartridge discharged, and the bullet had penetrated his heart. He had been a short stalky man and had worn a brown soft hat. There was nothing about his clothing to iden

ic

all young man in evening clothes, and the short stalky man with the soft hat who had followed him. The two of them had run around the corner. Only one of them had come back. Unforgettabl

ic

s no suicide. She remembere

least ten minutes before the other man reappeared, time enough to have placed the revolver in the dead m

overwhelmingly, it dawned on her not only that in all probability a murder had b

s, who it must have been