Page 122 (1/1)

"Doctor, why did you put out that candle?" Miss Cornelia's voice cut the blackness like a knife

"I didn't--I--"

"You did--I saw you do it"

The brief exchange of accusation and denial took but an instant of ti wide open The next instant there was a rush of feet across the floor, from the fireplace--the shock of a collision between two bodies--the sound of a heavy fall

"What was that?" queried Bailey dazedly, with a feeling as if soed creature had brushed at him and passed

Lizzie answered froroaned in stricken accents "Somebody knocked me down and tramped on me!"

"Matches, quick!" commanded Miss Cornelia "Where's the candle?"

The Doctor was still trying to explain his curious action of a moment before

"Awfully sorry, I assure you--it dropped out of the holder--ah, here it is!"

He held it up triu little flame showed Lizzie prostrate but vocal, in the doorway--and Dale lying on the floor of the Hidden Room, her eyes shut, and her face as drained of color as the face of a ht she must be dead

He rushed to her wildly and picked her up in his ar--thank God! He carried her tenderly to the only chair in the room

"Doctor!"

The Doctor, once more the physician, knelt at her side and felt for her pulse And Lizzie, picking herself up from where the collision with so salts fro on strained faces, the drae of Bailey, that a new actor appeared on the scene

Anderson, the detective, stood in the doorway, holding a candle--as griure as a ht!" said Lizzie, unappalled for once "Colanced up and

"You took my revolver from me downstairs," he said "I'll trouble you for it"

The Doctor got heavily to his feet The others, their suspicions confirmed at last, looked at him with startled eyes The detective seeht

Sloith sullen reluctance, the Doctor yielded up the stolen weapon The detective examined it casually and replaced it in his hip pocket

"I've soh clenched teeth, addressing the Doctor "And I'll settle it properly Nohat's this?"