Project Gutenberg's The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories, by Ethel M. Dell

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Title: The Safety Curtain, and Other Stories

Author: Ethel M. Dell

Release Date: September 4, 2005 [EBook #16651]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE
SAFETY CURTAIN
AND OTHER STORIES

by

ETHEL M. DELL

AUTHOR OF:-

The Hundreth Chance
Greatheart
The Lamp in the Desert
The Tidal Wave
The Top of the World
The Obstacle Race
The Way of an Eagle
The Knave of Diamonds
The Rocks of Valpre
The Swindler
The Keeper of the Door
Bars of Iron
Rosa Mundi
Etc.

GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

Made in the United States of America

This edition is issued under arrangement with the publishers

G.P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London

Made in the United States of America

The Knickerbocker Press, New York

CONTENTS

The Safety Curtain

The Experiment

Those Who Wait

The Eleventh Hour

The Place of Honour

The Safety Curtain

CHAPTER I

THE ESCAPE

A great shout of applause went through the crowded hall as the
Dragon-Fly Dance came to an end, and the Dragon-Fly, with quivering,
iridescent wings, flashed away.

It was the third encore. The dance was a marvellous one, a piece of
dazzling intricacy, of swift and unexpected subtleties, of almost
superhuman grace. It must have proved utterly exhausting to any ordinary
being; but to that creature of fire and magic it was no more than a
glittering fantasy, a whirl too swift for the eye to follow or the brain
to grasp.

"Is it a boy or a girl?" asked a man in the front row.

"It's a boy, of course," said his neighbour, shortly.

He was the only member of the audience who did not take part in that
third encore. He sat squarely in his seat throughout the uproar,
watching the stage with piercing grey eyes that never varied in their
stern directness. His brows were drawn above them--thick, straight brows
that bespoke a formidable strength of purpose. He was plainly a man who
was acc