Part 22 (2/2)

As he said it there came a loud pounding on the door at their left and Alice's voice called:

”Mr. Brady! Oh, Mr. Brady!”

”Well, upon my word!” exclaimed Leggett.

”Alice, are you all right?” cried the old detective with deep anxiety in his tone.

”As right as I can be under the circ.u.mstances,” replied the voice behind the door, ”but they have taken the poor little princess away. This is Garshaski's work. Perhaps you don't know?

”Oh, I know. I had as soon see you in the clutches of the arch fiend himself as in that man's power.”

”Yes, he's a fiend, all right, and don't you forget it,” replied Alice, ”and a yellow one at that. I have a lot to tell you, Mr. Brady, but if Harry needs you, do attend to him first.”

”He can wait. Patience a moment. I have unbolted the door. I shall soon find a key to fit.”

The old detective was trying his skeletons and in a moment he had the door open.

It was the same room in which Alice had pa.s.sed those dreary days with the princess.

But now she was alone and the room was all in disorder.

As for Alice herself she was tied in her chair, being bound hand and foot.

She had been gagged also, she explained, a handkerchief having been tied over her mouth, but this she managed to work off.

”I heard you when you called murder,” she said, ”but I couldn't speak then. Who fired? Who was killed?”

”Ah Lung,” replied the old detective, and he explained as he cut Alice's bonds.

”As for my story, it is too long to tell now,” she said. ”Go for Harry.”

”If we can get there. We seem to have taken another door than the one we intended.”

”From that long corridor?”

”Yes.”

”I came in at the Door of Death as they call it. It has nearly been the death of me.”

She shuddered at the recollection of the cruelties she had witnessed in the torture room.

They hurried down stairs and pa.s.sed out into the corridor again.

Alice could see no ”Door of Death” now.

”This next door says To Let,” she said. ”Suppose you try that.”

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