“Jimmie! Jimmie! I’m terribly afraid! Don’t leave me! Please, please don’t let the light fade!”
Jimmie read real terror in her eyes, and in his honest devotion would have risked anything to save her from the unknown terror that lurked in the dark.
But he was helpless for in an instant the place went black. He had not touched a switch, yet his light had blinked out. His head whirled. His trembling hand found a switch, threw it on. Still no light. Another and yet another.
“The house is dark! The wires are cut!” he told himself frantically.
Feeling his way along the aisle, he began stumbling down a stairway when to his startled ears there came a long drawn, piercing scream.
After that followed silence, silence such as only an empty playhouse holds in the dark night.
For a full minute he saw nothing, heard nothing. Then came a sound. Faint, yet very distinct it came, and appeared to cross the hall from end to end.
“Wings,” he murmured. “Just what she said. The flutter of wings!”
CHAPTER XX
“KIDNAPED”
Jimmie went at once for the watchman. He was some time in finding him. At last he stumbled upon him in the front corridor.