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The sound of a ,

of a careful foot on a stairas quite distinct I even

reht stumble that I had noticed before

We were all so intent on those steps in the wall that

ere off guard I heard Bates yell atHe had drawn a

revolver from his overcoat pocket and thrown it up to

fire at h

the air

"Only a entle past ht end of the fireplace There see Even Morgan

and hisready for a rush at lanced nervously from one to the

other of us It was the calm before the storm; in a moment

we should be at each other's throats for the final

struggle, and yet aited In the wall I heard still

the sound of steps They were clear to all of us now

We stood there for what seemed an eternity-I suppose

the ti, while I felt that so, were intolerable I grasped an, with the overturned

table and wreckage of the chandelier between ; and every man in the room was instantly

on the alert

All but Bates He reid-that curious

smile on his blood-sreat fireplace back of me

That look on his face held, arrested, nuan; a tacit truce held us all