FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   >>  
ng now. The sun will see us in Newport News." Virginia regarded him dreamily, and tightened her clasp about his neck. "Newport News," she said; "and what do I care! You have not kissed me in an age." CHAPTER XV CONCLUSION The next afternoon Horace Howland sat in his office at No. 11 Broadway, staring moodily at his desk with its accumulation of papers. For long, it seemed, he had lived in an agony of suspense. Friends had come and gone and said their words, and passed on unrecognized and unheeded. How many times had he wished that the Ward liner which had crossed the path of the boats and picked them up the morning after the fire had left him at least to perish. A full half-dozen tugs and steamships had been sent to the scene of the conflagration there to cruise about until some trace of the missing should be found. A Clyde vessel had sighted the burned steamship, a mere mass of charred and twisted frames and plates, sinking low in the sea. A Government cruiser and a revenue cutter had joined in the search. But no word had come. An hour before, a messenger boy had arrived with a telegram. It was one of many received by Mr. Howland every day, and he tossed it, unopened, upon a pile of similar envelopes upon his desk. Now, as he turned his eyes yearningly out of a window which gave upon the harbor, the name of a reporter was announced. Mr. Howland had talked and talked and talked to reporters until he was sick of them as of every one and everything else. He turned to his secretary. "See that fellow, will you?" he said. In less than a minute the secretary hurried into the office with an excited manner, the reporter at his heels, bearing a long sheet of tissue paper filled with typewriting. "I have come to see you about the rescue of your daughter, Mr. Howland." The merchant wheeled quickly in his chair. "What!" he cried. Then he sprang to his feet and seized the manuscript which the reporter held out to him. Quickly he read it. Then he read it again, more slowly. He read it a third time. His hand flew to his forehead, and he staggered back to his chair. The secretary stepped to his side, but Mr. Howland waved him away. "When did this come?" he asked. "A few moments ago," replied the reporter. "Well," and Mr. Howland gazed at his informant with suffused eyes, "I thank you for your kindness. You must know how grateful I am. Of course there is nothing I can tell you-
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   >>  



Top keywords:
Howland
 

reporter

 

talked

 
secretary
 
office
 
Newport
 

turned

 

minute

 

tissue

 

filled


bearing
 
hurried
 

excited

 

manner

 

yearningly

 

window

 

harbor

 

envelopes

 

tossed

 

unopened


similar
 

announced

 

fellow

 
received
 

typewriting

 
reporters
 
manuscript
 

replied

 

informant

 

suffused


moments

 

kindness

 
grateful
 
seized
 

Quickly

 
sprang
 

merchant

 

daughter

 

wheeled

 

quickly


staggered

 

stepped

 
forehead
 

slowly

 
rescue
 
sinking
 

suspense

 

papers

 
accumulation
 

Broadway