Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/147

AN EFFORT TO ESCAPE back of the hall, but the exit leading to the kitchen refused to open. Perhaps I could get up stairs before the officer had secured his weapon,, and slip into some room having a window. It would not he much of a drop to the ground, and, even if I met him, it would he only one man, I was pitted against, and he no better armed than I. All this flashed over me in an instant, and the next, revolver in hand, I was flying up the carpeted steps. At the top I came into an upper hall, somewhat narrower than the one beneath, a half-dozen visible doors betokening as many rooms. To my left one door stood open, the light within shining brighter than that of the hall. There was where the Lieutenant was, securing his weapons without doubt. With barely a second of hesitancy, I turned to the right, circled the head of the stairs, and opened the first door yielding to my touch. I took a single step within, and stopped, as helpless to move as though paralyzed, one hand clutching my revolver, the other still upon the knob of the door. Through the main opening, as well as the wide transom above, the dim radiance of the hall lamp already revealed that interior—a great four-posted bed, a high, old-fashioned bureau, one drawer open several chairs and an oval mirror in a gilt frame. That the single window was open was revealed by the blowing back of the chintz curtains, while my feet pressed a thick carpet of some bright color. I saw all this at a glance for the details are with me yet, but then, it seemed to me, I stared at only one object—a motionless body lying outstretched upon the floor.

For an instant I could not believe my own eyes; then [ 137 ]