The Circular Staircase - Page 146/154

I was furiously angry--at myself, at the mantel door, at everything. I

did not fear suffocation; before the thought had come to me I had

already seen a gleam of light from the two small ventilating pipes in

the roof. They supplied air, but nothing else. The room itself was

shrouded in blackness.

I sat down in the stiff-backed chair and tried to remember how many

days one could live without food and water. When that grew monotonous

and rather painful, I got up and, according to the time-honored rule

for people shut in unknown and ink-black prisons, I felt my way

around--it was small enough, goodness knows. I felt nothing but a

splintery surface of boards, and in endeavoring to get back to the

chair, something struck me full in the face, and fell with the noise of

a thousand explosions to the ground. When I had gathered up my nerves

again, I found it had been the bulb of a swinging electric light, and

that had it not been for the accident, I might have starved to death in

an illuminated sepulcher.

I must have dozed off. I am sure I did not faint. I was never more

composed in my life. I remember planning, if I were not discovered,

who would have my things. I knew Liddy would want my heliotrope

poplin, and she's a fright in lavender. Once or twice I heard mice in

the partitions, and so I sat on the table, with my feet on the chair.

I imagined I could hear the search going on through the house, and once

some one came into the trunk-room; I could distinctly hear footsteps.

"In the chimney! In the chimney!" I called with all my might, and was

rewarded by a piercing shriek from Liddy and the slam of the trunk-room

door.

I felt easier after that, although the room was oppressively hot and

enervating. I had no doubt the search for me would now come in the

right direction, and after a little, I dropped into a doze. How long I

slept I do not know.

It must have been several hours, for I had been tired from a busy day,

and I wakened stiff from my awkward position. I could not remember

where I was for a few minutes, and my head felt heavy and congested.

Gradually I roused to my surroundings, and to the fact that in spite of

the ventilators, the air was bad and growing worse. I was breathing

long, gasping respirations, and my face was damp and clammy. I must

have been there a long time, and the searchers were probably hunting

outside the house, dredging the creek, or beating the woodland. I knew

that another hour or two would find me unconscious, and with my

inability to cry out would go my only chance of rescue. It was the

combination of bad air and heat, probably, for some inadequate

ventilation was coming through the pipes. I tried to retain my

consciousness by walking the length of the room and back, over and

over, but I had not the strength to keep it up, so I sat down on the

table again, my back against the wall.