Part 38 (1/2)

The old wohed

”God help us!” she said softly ”Harry, I a very weary of my life now; it is so near the end”

”Hush!+” said the professor, gently ”There are things which you ought not to see or know You are weak from the shock and injuries you have received”

”But listen, dear”

”My dear old wifie,” he said tenderly, ”it is of no use to look in that i way at me You knohat Jeonism with him There, be at rest; I will do all I can

Don't think me so bloodthirsty as to desire their end Still, so ainst housekeeper

The scoundrels came armed”

”Armed?”

”Yes, I saw a revolver in the trunk with their burgling tools If I had come upon them suddenly, and they had had time, they would have fired at me”

”Oh, surely not!”

”Huentle heart, ready to defend and palliate After the way in which I found you, I do not feel soto fear from them, why did they come armed?”

The old housekeeper , while the professor slowly paced the rooned to hiht for,” she said feebly ”Help me up to my roohtened, for it was a relief to hie and sighed as she rose painfully

”You ait until they coht of that which she dreaded

”Need you ask?” said the professor, gravely ”Co down for a few hours Try to forget everything in the re all for you that I can”

”Yes, Harry,” she said softly; ”I have never had cause to complain of your want of love for me in these forty years; but for my sake, dear, let there be noI can,” said the professor, gravely, as he bent down and kissed her while leading her to the door and then slowly up to a bedroom on the third floor, where he left her at the end of a fewinto a doze

As he stole out softly he silently removed the key, replaced it on the other side, and locked her in, before descending quickly to the hall, where he stood listening for a few minutes, and then went down into the basement and stepped softly forward to listen at the outer door of the plate vault

A faintof voices could be heard as he placed his ear to the key-hole, but all else was still; there was no sound of an effort being made to escape, and he went back to the hall, where he took out and re-examined his revolver

”I wonder,” he said to himself, ”whether a shot or two could be heard in the street Pish!+ Absurd! No one heard the reports when poor Bob went down Ah, here they are They haven't been long”

For there was a faint rattle of a latch-key in the door, and Robert Clareborough entered, in co excited and anxious, the two latter stern and as if prepared for the worst

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

GRIM DEATH

As the door banged to and was locked, Roach uttered a wild cry and threw hi the back of his head with his hands, as he thrust it into the corner farthest fro up tiny clouds of sainst the wall for awildly at the broken lantern and the la still in a little pool of oil, while the powder kept flashi+ng out, darting frorain, where they had been scattered about the floor Then the tiny fla towards the portmanteau, in which the partially-e by fits and starts in the direction of the iron entry