The Secret Mark

MP3 Audio CD. The Secret Mark


CHAPTER I
A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR


Lucile Tucker's slim, tapered fingers trembled slightly as she rested
them against a steel-framed bookcase. She had paused to steady her shaken
nerves, to collect her wits, to determine what her next move should be.

"Who can it be?" her madly thumping heart kept asking her.

And, indeed, who, besides herself, could be in the book stacks at this
hour of the night?

About her, ranging tier on tier, towering from floor to ceiling, were
books, thousands on thousands of books. The two floors above were full of
books. The two below were the same. This place was a perfect maze of
books. It was one of the sections of a great library, the library of one
of the finest universities of the United States.

In all this vast "city of books" she had thought herself quite alone.

It was a ghostly hour. Midnight. In the towers the great clock had slowly
struck. Besides the striking of the clock there had been but a single
sound: the click of an electric light snapped on. There had instantly
gleamed at her feet a single ray of light. That light had traveled
beneath many tiers of books to reach her. She thought it must be four but
was not quite sure.