THE DARK HOUSE

by

I. A. R. WYLIE

Author of "The Daughter of Brahma," "The Shining Heights," etc.

1922







PART I

I

1

The cigar was a large one and Robert Stonehouse was small. At the
precise moment, in fact, when he leant out of the upstairs bedroom
window, instinctively seeking fresh air, he became eight years old. He
did not know this, though he did know that it was his birthday and that
a birthday was a great and presumably auspicious occasion. His
conception of what a birthday ought to be was based primarily on one
particular event when he had danced on his mother's bed, shouting, "I'm
five--I'm five!" in unreasonable triumph. His mother had greeted him