ooden
steps. Whatever it was it was evidently ascending, while behind it
clanked the heavy links of a dragged chain.

The Oskaloosa Kid cast a wide eyed glance of terror at Bridge. His
lips moved in an attempt to speak; but fear rendered him inarticulate.
Slowly, ponderously the THING ascended the dark stairs from the gloom
ridden cellar of the deserted ruin. Even Bridge paled a trifle. The man
upon the floor appeared to have met an unnatural death--the frightful
expression frozen upon the dead face might even indicate something
verging upon the supernatural. The sound of the THING climbing out of
the cellar was indeed uncanny--so uncanny that Bridge discovered himself
looking about for some means of escape. His eyes fell upon the stairway
leading to the second floor.

"Quick!" he whispered. "Up the stairs! You go first; I'll follow."

The Kid needed no second invitation. With a bound he was half way up
the rickety staircase; but a glance ahead at the darkness above gave
him pause while he waited for Bridge to catch up with him. Coming more
slowly with his burden the man followed the boy, while from below the
clanking of the chain warned them that the THING was already at the top
of the cellar stairs.

"Flash the lamp down there," directed Bridge. "Let's have a look at it,
whatever it is."

With trembling hands The Oskaloosa Kid directed the lens over the
edge of the swaying and rotting bannister, his finger slipped from the
lighting button plunging them all into darkness. In his frantic effort
to find the button and relight the lamp the worst occurred--he fumbled
the button and the lamp slipped through his fingers, falling over the
bannister to the floor below. Instantly the sound of the dragging chain
ceased; but the silence was even more horrible than the noise which had
preceded it.

For a long minute the two at the head of the stairs stood in tense
silence listening for a repetition of the gruesome sounds from below.
The youth was frankly terrified; he made no effort to conceal the fact;
but pressed close to his companion, again clutching his arm tightly.
Bridge could feel the trembling of the slight figure, the spasmodic
gripping of the slender fingers and hear the quick, short, irregular
breathing. A sudden impulse to throw a protecting arm about the boy
seized him--an impulse which he could not quite fathom, and one to which
he could not respond because of the body of the girl he carried.

He bent towar