THE SOLITARY HOUSE

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12406, 26 August 1918, Page 8

THE SOLITARY HOUSE

CHAPTER XXVUT. THE HOUSE ROOF. Since in that great darkness and vast tangle of trees pursuit was plainly useless, it was settled that nothing more snould be attempted till daylight, though two men were to be left on guard to see that the strange eyrie Keith had discovered was not destroy;d or damaged in any way. “ Not that our friend of the tree tops is likely to turn here,” obsex-ved Captain Wallace, “ though he won’t dodge us for long whatever he does. I snail have every man ’in the force on the lookout for him to-morrow morning first thing. He hasn’t a chance of getting away,” . Keith was not so optimistic, but at iny rate he did not see what else could bo done for the moment, and ho was besides busily occupied in trying to patch up his clothing and his skin, noth of which had suffered severely during his wild climb through the trees. For tho first time Captain Wallaco noticed his condition by the rays of a lantern -a man was holding neai, and uttered a loud exclamation.

‘ 1 Good heavens, what a state you are jn,” bo cried. Ono doesn’t go climbing in the dark for nothing,”, answered Keith. iio was, in fact, nearly naked, fm two-thirds of his clothing ho had left in the trees above and the remaining third hung about him in ribbons, and as for his skin, there was hardly a, square inch that was not scratched and bleeding. Fortunately, none of his .wounds' was serious, biit he had lost a fair amount of blood, and he was so stiff and soro ho could hardly stand. One man lent him a coat and another a piece of sacking, and another was directed to give him his arm to support him us he walked.

Esme was still unconscious, and she was borne along on a stretcher hastily improvised from coats and branches. A messenger had already been sent off

(By E. R. PUNSHON) Author of "Arrows of Chance," etc., etc.

on a bicycle for a doctor, and when the little procession got back again to tho house the burly policeman who had been left on guard came forward quickly-

“A gentleman’s hero, sir,” he said to the Captain. “Said he was particular anxious to see you,, sir, but he wouldn’t give his name.” “ Where is he?” asked tho Captain, wondering who this late visitor might, be.

“ In tho drawing-room, sir,” answered the constable.

•“I’ll see what ho wants at once,” said the Captain. “Wilks, put the lady down on one of the beds upstairs and wait till the doctor comes. See if you can rouse Mrs Wentworth and tell her we think her sister is here, and then come to me in the drawing-room.” As he spoke he opened the drawingroom door and entered, and came out again at once.

“There is no one there,” he said sharply to the constable. The man looked very blank. “Ho said ho would wait there, sir,” ho protested, “and he hnsu’i left, fuc house, I’ll swear to that, for I’ve been standing here all the time.” “Well,'he isn’t there now,” answered the Captain; “ho must have slipped out the hack way. I wonder what the fellow came for?”

He was evidently a good deal disturbed, and he was still more worried when a hnef investigation showed that all the doors and windows were securely locked on the inside.

“ But that’s absurd,” exclaimed the Captain irritably. “ I never heard of sdeh a case as tiiis, one mad impossible thing after another. Is he hiding in a cupboard or unde: a bed or something? He must have gone again without your seeing him,” ho added to the policeman who had been on duty. But the man insisted respectfully hut very emphatically that that was

((idle impossible, and the Captain repeated : “Well, then, where is he? What on earth can the fellow have wanted, coining at such an hour and then vanishing like this?”

But an idea had come to Keith, and he said to the policeman: "V*'as this man tall with very long amis and legs that seemed too long lor him to manage, and did his face look all skin and bone?”

“Yes, ho was like that,” agreed the man, and Keith turned excitedly to Captain Wallace. " It was Bert \Venlworth,” ho cried ; “ the man at tho bottom of the whole thing.”

"Bert Wentworth,” repeated Captain Wallace, looking more and more tiewildored; “hut, good heavens, what should he come hem for? And if ho did, why should he slip off again? And how could he without being seen? "It's --it's absurd.’

There is Airs "Wentworth?” said Keith, “You had better sec she is all right.” Captain Wallace and Inspector Wilks both looked very taken aback at this suggestion that a new’ tragedy might have taken place, and they hurried together up the stairs. But Reenio answered at once when they knocked, and when they told hot het sister was there she came quickly to the door. In answer to their inquiries, she said she had seen and heard nothing, and they carried Esme up and laid her on the bed in Rccnie’s care, while a hurried search through the house made it certain that the stranger—Bert Wentworth or anothci—-was no longet under that roof. “All the doors and windows are locked still on the inside, and I’ll take my oath he never passed me again, ’ declared the constable obstinately, “it fair boats mo, it docs.” “ There’s the chimneys,” suggested someone from behind.

“ Don’t be a fool,” snapped Inspector Wilks irritably; “they’re too narrow, and besides no ono could climb, them without making a lot of soot fall and there’s none showing.” But Keith, who was standing at the top of the stairs, remembered how equally mysteriously bis assailant he now identified with the man of the woods he had seen this night had vanished on the occasion of his first sojourn under that roof. It seemed to him certain that there must he some means of leaving the house they had not found, ik- had noticed already that the. skylight was rather wide open, and dim thoughts were moving in his mind.

“Do you notice,” he said to Wilks, “that the skylight is wide open?” “Well, what about it?” snapped Wilks. “It doesn’t lead anywhere except to the roof, does it? You don’t suppose he is crawling about there, do you?” “t don’t know,” answered Keith ; “but suppose you and I go out and c eo what we can see 'while one of your men keeps an eye open inside here.” Wilks shrugged his shoulder. '“Oh. very well,” he said; “but why in the name of common sense should anyone r/o and roost on a roof? A man may try to escape by housetops in a town, of course, but why on earth should anyone want to prowl round the chimney rots of a detached house like this—ami come of his own free will to do it?”

r l|p was still grumbling as he followed Keith out of the house into the open, and as they came to the corner by the drawing-room window they saw distinctly and plainly a shapelcs*. shadowy form that ran like some unimaginably enormous cat or witch’s familiar spirit up the side of the house almost as easily as though it ran en level ground.

Even as they stared, amazed and utterly bewildered by the sight, they saw It roach the gutter and lay hold of ft and swing itself up and over and disappear from sight on to the roof. “I I . .. . what . . .?” stammered the inspector. “It that don’t beat- all!”

Keith, too. was staring blankly upwards. trying vainly to conceive what it could bo that they had seen and what jt all meant., From the house Captain . 'Wallace's voice called impatiently:

“"Wilks, "Wilks, where are you? "What are you doing ?■”

■‘"Watching the devil, I think, sir," answered Wilks; “we have just, seen him run up the side nf the house and now he’s on the roof.” “What do you mean?” asked the captain angrily; and even as ho spoke there broke out above their heads a strange, wild tumult, a. sound of runninsc to and fro. of stamping and scrambling, of a displaced tile kicked loose and falling to the ground, and, above all else, a thrill weird, inarticulate creaming, like nothing they had ever heard before and that filled all the quiet night with its clamour. Strange beyond all conception was this mad tumult that had broken out so suddenly for no imaginable reason upon the house s roof. There was one man began to mutter prayers and a . n .?, . er , crassG d himself, but most stood still m blank bewilderment, as though almost supposing tboir senses had betitled them and they wore the vielit 1 s ? m ° ™ a s' c or enchantment. Ut them all Keith.was the lirst to recover himself, for some faint idea or the meaning of it began to come to Inin, and ho ran into the house am! * Kiair: i to where the policemcnt left to guard the skylight had shrunk away from it in terror.

There s devils up there,” he gaspeu ns Keith came running ut> the stairs; a leg came through, a great leg all over hair,' and ho pointed as he spoke to the open skylight. “Help me up,” said Keith briefly, and with a. great leap he caught the " ct o t* & Wight and swung there. Father you. nor me,” muttered the constable, but took him round the legs and gave him an upward heave so that he was able to draw himself through

to the roof, and as he crouched there with one knee on the slates and one still- hanging down he saw two dark figures entwined, stamping, struggling, wrestling in fierce conflict to the accompaniment of a shrill, high screaming ono of them uttered without ceasing. It was only for a moment or two it lasted as he rested there, half in, half out of tiie skylight, and watched the two combatants, clearly outlined against the sky, as they fought, broke loose, closed again and wrestled together between the chimney pots on the steep roof side. How they kept, their footing at all was a wonder, and he saw them fall and recover themselves and resume their struggle as fiercely as before, when at once there came the inevitable end. For again they fed, and this time did not recover their footing, but, clasped in each other's arms, rolled together on the roof and .oveland over with increasing momentum down its steep slope- against its low brick parapet their impact shattered, ’and over- the edge in the midst of a shower of bricks and a length of broken gutter to fall crashing to the ground beneath. Keith drew back through the shylight and dropped down by the side of the palo constable. “ It’s all over,” ho said. He ran down the stairs and out ot the house round so the side. A httlo group of meu had already gathered there, and in the midst lay, still clasped in each other’s arms, their hands at each other’s throats, that man whom Keith had seen before ana knew for Bert Wentworth and a naked hairy monstrous form that seemed only hah human with its scowling, bestial textures and great protruding jnr>o which the death foam nas aheady gathering. (To be. concluded.)