"I've
been all over the house," he said. "There's nobody there."
A pause followed. Dale found herself helplessly looking toward her
lover for comfort--comfort he could not give without revealing his
own secret.
Eerily, through the tense silence, a sudden tinkling sounded--the
sharp, persistent ringing of a telephone bell.
Miss Cornelia rose to answer it automatically. "The house phone!"
she said. Then she stopped. "But we're all here."
They looked attach other aghast. It was true. And yet--somehow
--somewhere--one of the other phones on the circuit was calling
the living-room.
Miss Cornelia summoned every ounce of inherited Van Gorder pride she
possessed and went to the phone. She took off the receiver. The
ringing stopped.
"Hello--hello--" she said, while the others stood rigid, listening.
Then she gasped. An expression of wondering horror came over her
face.
CHAPTER TEN
THE PHONE CALL FROM NOWHERE
"Somebody groaning!" gasped Miss Cornelia. "It's horrible!"
The detective stepped up and took the receiver from her. He
listened anxiously for a moment.
"I don't hear anything," he said.
"I heard it! I couldn't imagine such a dreadful sound! I tell
you--somebody in this house is in terrible distress."
"Where does this phone connect?" queried Anderson practically.
Miss Cornelia made a hopeless little gesture. "Practically every
room in this house!"
The detective put the receiver to his ear again.
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