Ten Nights in a Bar RoomArthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
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Ten Nights in a Bar Room
Arthur, T. S. (Timothy Shay)
Christian fiction; Temperance -- Fiction
"Where is he? Where is he? Let us find him. He knows where Green is,
and he shall reveal the secret."
This was enough. The passions of the crowd were at fever heat again.
Two or three men were chosen to search the house and premises, while
others dispersed to take a wider range. One of the men who volunteered
to go over the house was a person named Lyon, with whom I had formed
some acquaintance, and several times conversed with on the state of
affairs in Cedarville. He still remained too good a customer at the
bar. I left the bar at the same time that he did, and went up to my
room. We walked side by side, and parted at my door, I going in, and he
continuing on to make his searches. I felt, of course, anxious and much
excited, as well in consequence of the events of the day, as the
present aspect of things. My head was aching violently, and in the hope
of getting relief, I laid myself down. I had already lighted a candle,
and turned the key in my door to prevent intrusion. Only for a short
time did I lie, listening to the hum of voices that came with a hoarse
murmur from below, to the sound of feet moving along the passages, and
to the continual opening and shutting of doors, when something like
suppressed breathing reached my ears, I started up instantly, and
listened; but my quickened pulses were now audible to my own sense, and
obscured what was external.
"It is only imagination," I said to myself. Still, I sat upright,
listening.
Satisfied, at length, that all was mere fancy, I laid myself back on
the pillow, and tried to turn my thoughts away from the suggested idea
that some one was in the room. Scarcely had I succeeded in this, when
my heart gave a new impulse, as a sound like a movement fell upon my
ears.
"Mere fancy!" I said to myself, as some one went past the door at the
moment. "My mind is overexcited."
Still I raised my head, supporting it with my hand, and listened,
directing my attention inside, and not outside of the room. I was about
letting my head fall back upon the pillow, when a slight cough, so
distinct as not to be mistaken, caused me to spring to the floor, and
look under the bed. The mystery was explained. A pair of eyes glittered
in the candlelight. The fugitive, Green, was under my bed. For some
moments I stood looking at him, so astonished that I had neither
utterance nor decision; while he glared at me with a fierce defiance. I
saw that he was clutching a revolver.
"Understand!" he said, in a grating whisper, "that I am not to be taken
alive."
I let the blanket, which had concealed him from view, fall from my
hand, and then tried to collect my thoughts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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