possible explanation is that the voice was somewhat changed. nize it at first. My cars are usually steaithily down the hallâ€"and he had halted just outside my deor. mystery still. I certainly could not have heard him above the thunder of the rain. ‘Perhaps it was the jar of his footsteps on the floor, or maybe side my door. whom Alexander called Roderick had offered the reward for trace of the elder Southley. I couldn‘t explain why my host had gone for years unâ€" der an assumed name, or had adopted I thought about somé stealing figâ€" -gthntyninflnmrridflrj-tm~ remained as "It doesn‘t helpâ€"to lie." It must have been almost one a‘clock when I got to my room. There were plenty of things to think about. One was that on the morrow I would say goodâ€"by to Southiey Downs. The meeting of the girl in the sleeping ear had come to nothing, after all. I thought about Alexander Pierce, «ind all that he had told me. I had more complex, rather than simplified. Haywards with the Southleys, the But instead he suddenly leaped at a shadow in the muddy sand. He dug for an instant with his feet, and splashed the water. And when I looked again the track had been hopelesly obliterated. "Little fool!‘" I told him. "It wasn‘t there, Long," he anâ€" swered in a farâ€"away voice. "It was some trick of the rainâ€"or a mirage. It wasn‘t possible that it could be "Why not*" "You really don‘t want to see it. It wouldn‘t do you any good. It would just give you unpleasant memâ€" ories to carry away with youâ€"and besides, it can‘t be true. It‘s not there, Long." "Let me see." "No use, doctor." "Get out of the way, and let me see it," I ordered. I lowered my light to see, but he caught my _arm. "I guess not, Long," he said quietâ€" ly Dr. Long has a quarrel with Vilas Hayward over Josephine, and finds that the Haywards have «@ strange authority over the Southleys. He is ordered to leave Southley Downs. The rain prevents him leaving at once. Dr. Long and Ernest go out on the road in the rain looking for the tracks of a tiger that Ernest says are there. Now read onâ€" "It‘s no use," I said. "The water would have washed them all out." We separated and looked up and down. And finally I turned to call Ernest back to the house. He was bent‘ low, holding his lantern close to the mud. "What is it?" I asked. "Come here," he erdered me. He stood up as I came close and held the lantern before~ him. | It shone on his white, set face. "I‘ve found it," he told me simply. At once it seemed to me that Ernest had left his boyhood far beâ€" hind him, and was ayman. The voice was mature, steady, perfectly calm. He spoke so low I had to strain to listen. mad Das, an Oriental There he in the shadow of the corridor. He meets Mr. Southley, whom a detecâ€"| carried a candle. He came in very tive friend, Alexander Pierce, had| quietly and closed the door behind told him to watch, and his son Ernest | him. He put his candle on the table. Southley, Mr. Hayward and his son | It is strange how the mind works. My Vilas, and then Josephine Southley, | first observation was the peculiar reâ€" whom he bad seen faint on the train.| semblance to his sister that 1 saw Josephine tells him the story of| in his eyes. They were dark, just Southley Downs and its ghost, which / like hers. He sat down on the edge is not the ghost of a human being / of the bed. 1 saw that he was also but of a tiger. lpartly undressed. Dr. Long has a quarrel with Vilas| "Have you got a pistol?" he asked. Hagward over Josephine, and finds| "Yes. It is in my bag.%. % that the Haywards have & strange| "I wish you‘d get it, doctor. I‘m authority over the Southleys. He is ‘not sureâ€"but that we‘l need. it." ordered to leave Southley Downs.| 1 opened my bag without question The rain prevents him leaving at| and drew out my automatic. once. Dr. Long and Ernest go out| "Can you shoot with the thing*" on the road in the rain looking for | he asked. â€" the tracks of a tiger that Ernest says ; "Fairly well." are there. Now read onâ€" _ "Then you‘d better keep it. I don‘t =â€"~~ think I could hit the side of a barn‘! "It‘s no use," I said. "The water: We might need cool shooting. Long, would have washed them all out"| we‘ve got & hunt on our hands toâ€" wWHAT HAPPENED BEFORE Dr. Long is visiting Southley Downs, which is conducted by Ahâ€" at joki It ( "Be patient, old man." Then he uttered the strangest little sigh. r‘“[mk, Long. It isn‘t done, after all," } His voice dropped a note; that was its only change. I knew he was | pointing toward the row of windows | at the opposite end of _ the hall. | Three of them glowed dimly from the | flickering lightning in the far reaches Jof the sky, rectangular in shape as they should be. The upper part of the fourth was lighted too, but the lower part was wholly obscured by something that stood in front. It was something low and long that stood perhaps three feet high. Someâ€" thing was crossing at the end of the hall, between us and the windows. The shadow slowly changed im shape. It made an arc over the lovvrpcfloftbeume'illdow'ei had seen beforeâ€"a shape as of a monstrous flank of an animal. And the adjoining window was partly obâ€" scured now. Whatever moved at the end of the hall was creeping slowly past the windows, and its body m‘ long enough that it left dark umâ€" brages against two of the l"M«!] panes. of. on evidently into the corridor that ran at right angles to the main hall. But Ernest spoiled our chances of stalking the creature in the hall. We thing it better than this suspense." "I can, but I don‘t dare. 1 can‘t shoot at the shadow Ernest â€" Too great a chance for accidents." "Then we‘ll stalk it It doesn‘t There was no chance for a misâ€" take. My senses were perfectly alert. It was not a delusion or an effect of shadow. Both of us kept our â€" control and were rather mrprin':iy calm. "Can you hit at that range?" Ern est whispered in my ear. We waited a long time. There was a row of windows at the end of the long room, dimly lighted from the distant lightning. The flashes were almost continuous, and the flickâ€" ering light was gray and strange through the rain. It was just a dim, weird radiance, and in no way alleviated the shadows of the room. The clock struck in the hall below us, so softly we could hardly hear. "Let‘s gd to bed," I whispered "Evidently the walk is done." "You‘re the only one I could trust," he told me. "My father laughs at the stories, and the Haywards are frightened almost to death." He blew out the candle. The only light that remained was a single candle on a little table at the base of the stairs. We stood in darkness. \ "But why wait at all? Why not chase it down?" "Because chasing don‘t work. It knows how to hide. Behind the ¢urâ€" tains, and every place else. We‘ve got to watch his trail." â€" "We won‘t have long to wait said. "What have we got to hunt?" "That I don‘t know. except that it‘s the thing that left the Hztk. It‘s in the house." "How do you know?" "How do I know* My dear oll boy, I‘d love to say I didn‘t know but untortunately I do. It has got beâ€" yond the legend stage. If our lightâ€" ing system was only in order! You can‘t see anything with these canâ€" dlesâ€"and yet Iâ€"saw plenty. Are you ready2" ' 1 unlocked my door. Ernest stood in the shadow of the corridor. He carried a candle. He came in very quietly and closed the door behind He crept along the soft rugs, and our candle guided us. It gave such an ineffective light. Still the rain thundered, and he had to put his lips close to my ear to make me hear him. Then I felt, rather than heard. We stopped on a little landing in the stairway. We stepped out of our hiding place d crept down the hall. All four "Dr d at him as c liv s I could " he mad Das is _TVothing whalever â€" amy more &nthv:ddï¬mrm door. Ahmad Das was not in ;; Ernest asked me So we took the candle and went on bark into the main hall. Then we mounted a flight of stairs. At a little room, clear at the end of the corâ€" ridor, we stopped to knock. asleep, as he ought to be." will remember that wordâ€"at a betâ€" ter time," he promised. Then he whirled to me. ‘"The thing‘s got awayâ€"but this is one thing more I want to do before I go to bed. I want to look in Ahmad Das‘s room it, and so did you. And Ill leave this house tomorrow!" He seemed to be talking to himself rather than to we‘ve got, and Vilas can tend to ‘em. I‘ll go tomorrow for good and all! And Vilas can stay with his wench if he likes." | got to the windows and made the turn. Both of us knew, as well as we knew that the rain was clatterâ€" ing or the roof, that the creature we hunted was close in the darkness | somewhere in front of us. We were 1trying to walk with utter silence, Ernest a pace or two in front. He | forgot about a little step at the turn !in the corridor. | He tripped, and even above the { roar of the rain the sound was disâ€" tinct. The floor shookâ€"and it seemed to me that I heard the impact of cushioned feet as our quarry leaped. [Buf I can‘t be sure of that The "Did you see itâ€"when it passed my door?" he was crying. "Yor know what it wasâ€"just as I know, too. There‘s no use of pretending any more. It was there. and I saw He had forgotten our scene in the den a few hours before. His present emotion left no room for remembered anger. Jt looked as if he were tryâ€" ing to keep close to me. "Good God! Did you see it"" he cried. "Didn‘t you see, man? It went past my door." The cundle light was on his face: and the look was one not quickly forgotten. His ruddy color was quite gone, and his eyes were changed too. He clutched at us with great, cold. frenzied hands. end. We looked about and whispered to each other, and then went back for candles. We held them high and peered in the corners and among the curtains. The elder Hayward kept close behind us, uttering low, inarticâ€" ulate sentences not particulariy worth listening to. But we shook loose and hurried on down the corridor. There were unâ€" occupied rooms along it, many openâ€" ing from rear doors into other corâ€" ridors, and passages to the rear stairs and to the third floor. A winâ€" dow opened to a little balcony at the Neither of us stopped. I don‘t think either of us cried out We simply raced on up the hall. Even then there might hawe been a chance of overtaking the creature if it had not been for Hayward‘s interference. He flung out of the door as we went past and seized me by the shoulders. The creature we saw fitted with disturbing consistency into the old legend of the mansion. The form was low and long. and although the light was dim its gencral color was perfectly visible to both of us. It was a rich, beautiful yellow, striped with black. There were no extenuâ€" ating cireumstances. Both of us saw itâ€"as plain as we saw the open doorâ€" way. The posture was exactly that of. a great cat creeping, with belly low hung, upon its prey. But 1 can‘t be sure of that. The imagination is known to play tricks. Perhaps there was a faint rustle and stir. "Quick!" my companion breathed "It will escape us!" M Of course, it was too far to see plainly. But I had no more delusion: about its reality. The disease that affiicted the old mxnor house was surely drawing to its crisis. His bed had not No Ernest stopped beside him Mistratiotss by PM FREIN <\ C / cow., t it mean anything to you?" if and will not make her debris until Mrs. de Style: "I suppose your daughter is to have her coming out ball very soon, isn‘t she?" "Pinch me if I fall asicep." mutâ€" tered the Stewed Stude as be lurched against the lamp post, and the Pround Minion of the law proceeded to do as he was bid. ‘ "It stands to reason," said the wit as the first debator arose. picture gallery of our best villians of the period. On the whole Mr. Lynch‘s volume is an entertaining if not always accurate account of one of the greatest piratical expenditures days that have passed. It is also a highly exciting book. pended, what the national and state and how can the evils of the system has survived in opposition. trolled the affairs of New York so oflmn.dnlugt.htnootkrbody Alfred E. Smith, by Henry F.! Pringle has been ready for several | months. It is favorable without beâ€"| ing partisan, l ‘And now comes Tammy Hall, I)ryi M. P. Werner, the man who wrote | Barnum and Brigham Young. It | is an astonishing story of a practical | political organization which has conâ€"| Starr Myers, professor of politics in Princeton university gives us a hisâ€" tory of the progressive movement and brings the story of the Republiâ€" can party down to the moment when President Coolidge flung a bombshell into the political camps on August 2, 1927 with his declaration: "I do mot choose to run for president in nineteen twentyâ€"cight." American Parties and Politics, by H. R. Bruce presents the history and role of political parties in the United States. It covers the historâ€" ical development, organization and activities of parties in our governâ€" mental system. It is forceful in exâ€" planation and not clogged with exâ€" traneous matter: it reveals a wide and sane appreciation of the developâ€" ment of parties. Best of all, it is unbiased. For the next few months the presâ€" idential campaign will come into full swing. Those who wish to delve beâ€" hind the claims of the orators have the opportunity of consulting the following new books at the Highland Park Public Library. Ernest and I found the elder Hayâ€" ward in the library. He stood shiverâ€" ing before the faint couls that had been the fire. All of us leaped when the front door opened. It was Southley, and he carried a lantern. His clothés were simply drencbed. He wore no hat, and his white hair was stringing about his woern face, and the water poured from him. His wet face glistened in the candleâ€"light. "What‘s this"" he asked. "Just a little midnight sessien," his son fnswered. "Tell us first why you went out in the rain, with no youwnullale'litflepoi‘h&at will undoubtedly be a great source of pleasure to you." He spoke with a grim bumor. "You must have | be.rdsxoriesâ€"cverymnhs-otl‘ men shooting at hyenas in Africa, wounding the-.mthe-lotk‘ huts of natives, and then findingâ€" ; not a hyenaâ€"but a black man, dying, with a bullet in him." | "I‘ve heard the stories, and they don‘t make wood sense." "And maybe you haven‘t heard of the theory of the transmigration of "If you have, just remember these little points. One of them is that the transmigration of soulsâ€"that the soul of an animal can live again in the body of a manâ€"is a rather curâ€" rent belief in India. Ahmad Das is of Hindu blood. And he was born at the same hour that my father‘s tiger was killed." souls He laughed grimly. and gave me a cigarette. Then we walked out into the hall. "Every man of education has heard t," I replied. The Republican Party, by William Public Library (Continued next week) of books. of on the other. He ain‘t got no in htvâ€"hhhldm:hu- in ais v._mdntct wat teeps from sinking. Geese can‘t sing because of Mdfl.mhn wen they gets big has curis on there taies and is called ganders. Ganders dm'tmandhtcï¬h.gj.-‘..‘ go swimmin and lofe. If I was a ml'dmlherbe;n‘._ A colonel was transferred to a new command. Onn.dliq[..,“h toundsu:bn!lndu-m"- the archives of his predecessor so he wired to headquarters for permisâ€" sion to burn them. "You mean Daniel," again teacher corrected. "And what is your name*" she asked the third boy. "On clerk. which is mostly meet and fethers. His hed sits on one side and be sits The answer came make copies first." It was the first day of school and (hene'uacherwuukingthunu of the pupils. She asked the boy at the head of the line his name and he answered: "My name‘s Sam." "You mean . Samuel," â€" l; teacher corrected. And Jim, trying hard to please the teacher, answered sweetly: "My name is Jimuel." A woman went into a store picked up an article, walked out it, and told the clerk to charge The next boy gave his Phone 2048 * PIANO TUNING JOHN ZENGELER what â€" account?" nk;i Highland Park Press Letusubowyouournewumplam- sembling engraving. Cards, Invitations, Nesay on Gorme Dosa\uywiththeeostofaphtg. We Operate Our Own Plant in Something New Telephone Highland Park 2801 in Printing Cleaner and Dyer > back, "Yes, but 25 North Sheridan Road PROFESSION A L Work Guaranteed, Estimates Free name as and the H. F. PAHNKE . s"On account of" not money with me." *a-;&-â€"ucny in _td: . Ten %Nn.uur * you mean City, one ought, douâ€" ble nought. Why didn‘t you say so? "I beg pardon ?" es "Didn‘t you get it? One zero, zero, ® "City ten and two noughts." " don‘t understand you." Shop Phone H.P. 457 Res. 1986 51J Elm Place, Highland Park Telsphone 678 254 St. Johns Ave. H Storm Sash and Storm Doors CABINETS Jobbing Promptly Done DR. B. A. HAMILTON Carpenter and H. P. State Bank Blig.