Wake Not The Dead by John H. Knox

Author:John H. Knox
Format: mobi
Publisher: Munsey's

CHAPTER IV. Mistress of the Dying

TURNING, I ran toward my car. Whatever that revenant shape had been, I knew now that the Negro's entrance was all that had saved me from Macklin's fate, knew what grisly doom awaited me when next I faced that apparition out of hell. Yet my mind did not dwell on that. The need to find Lilly swallowed up all other considerations.

But where to go, where to look for her? Instinctively I piloted my car back toward Faustine Grenfel's house, and this time, a block away, I saw a light. Pulling into the curb, I parked and sneaked up the rest of the way on foot. There was a light in the front and one in the back, and I stole up behind a trellis and peered into the living room.

A swift wave of relief swept over me, for Lilly was there, unharmed, seated on a divan under a bridge lamp. But the next instant a chill of apprehension crept into my blood. It was the queer look on her face, as leaning forward, with the light falling softly on her brown hair and creamy skin, she was staring at something in her lap, staring with a weird absorption at what I now saw was a photograph of Porter Bruton!

I turned and made for the front door, rushing straight in without knocking. Lilly sprang to her feet with a gasp, and I saw her drop the photograph with a furtive movement at the end of the divan. Then with a quick and patently false smile, she came toward me.

“Why, Willis, you startled me—”

I reached out, gripped her shoulders, and I didn't smile back.

“What are you doing here?” I demanded.

“Why,” she stammered, “just waiting for Faustine to come in.”

Why this fear of me, this evasiveness? Suddenly I noticed that one of her small hands was crushing tightly something which she seemed to be trying to conceal.

“What's that?” I rasped, and grabbing her hand, I loosened the tight-clenched fingers and pulled out a ball of wadded paper.

“Willis, please!” She tried to snatch it back.

But I swung toward the light, smoothed it out and felt the scalp crawl on my neck as I read:

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