windows at the other end of the house," I whispered.
"Run. Tell them not to wait for anything."

She went up the stairs at that, two at a time. Evidently she collided
with the candle, for it went out, and I was left in darkness.

I was really astonishingly cool. I remember stepping over the chair
and gluing my ear to the door, and I shall never forget feeling it give
an inch or two there in the darkness, under a steady pressure from
without. But the chair held, although I could hear an ominous cracking
of one of the legs. And then, without the slightest warning, the
card-room window broke with a crash. I had my finger on the trigger of
the revolver, and as I jumped it went off, right through the door.
Some one outside swore roundly, and for the first time I could hear
what was said.

"Only a scratch. . . . Men are at the other end of the house. . . .
Have the whole rat's nest on us." And a lot of profanity which I won't
write down. The voices were at the broken window now, and although I
was trembling violently, I was determined that I would hold them until
help came. I moved up the stairs until I could see into the card-room,
or rather through it, to the window. As I looked a small man put his
leg over the sill and stepped into the room. The curtain confused him
for a moment; then he turned, not toward me, but toward the
billiard-room door. I fired again, and something that was glass or
china crashed to the ground. Then I ran up the stairs and along the
corridor to the main staircase. Gertrude was standing there, trying to
locate the shots, and I must have been a peculiar figure, with my hair
in crimps, my dressing-gown flying, no slippers, and a revolver
clutched in my hands I had no time to talk. There was the sound of
footsteps in the lower hall, and some one bounded up the stairs.

I had gone Berserk, I think. I leaned over the stair-rail and fired
again. Halsey, below, yelled at me.

"What are you doing up there?" he yelled. "You missed me by an inch."

And then I collapsed and fainted. When I came around Liddy was rubbing
my temples with eau de quinine, and the search was in full blast.

Well, the man was gone. The stable burned to the ground, while the
crowd cheered at every falling rafter, and the volunteer fire
department sprayed it with a garden hose. And in the house Alex and
Halsey searched every corner of the lower floor, finding no one.

The truth of my story was shown by the