FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>  
ct them, various stubs of partially-consumed cigarettes, lay about the tables and floor. Adjoining this was the chamber which had been known as Mrs. Dawson's, and this, too, had been thoroughly explored. 'Louette, who had disappeared after Doyle's tragic death, was found not far away, and the police thought it but fair that Mrs. Doyle should not be deprived of the services of her maid. Then came other additions, though confined in other sections of the city. Mr. Pepper wired that the party known as Monsieur Philippes had been run to earth and would reach town with him by train about the same time that another of the force returned from Mobile by boat, bringing a young man known as Dawson and wanted as a deserter, and a very sprightly young lady who appeared to move in a higher sphere of life, but was unquestionably his wife, for the officer could prove their marriage in South Carolina in the spring of '65. As Mr. Pepper expressed it when he reported to Reynolds, "It's almost a full hand, but, for a fact, it's only a bobtail flush. We need that cabman to fill." "How did you trace Philippes?" asked Reynolds. "Him? Oh, he was too darned musical. It was--what do you call it?--Flure de Tay that did for him. Why, he's the fellow that raised all the money and most of the h--ll for this old man Lascelles. He'd been sharping him for years." "Well, when can we bring this thing to a head?" asked the aide-de-camp. "_Poco tiempo!_ by Saturday, I reckon." But it came sooner. Waring was seated one lovely evening in a low reclining chair on Mrs. Cram's broad gallery, sipping contentedly at the cup of fragrant tea she had handed him. The band was playing, and a number of children were chasing about in noisy glee. The men were at supper, the officers, as a rule, at mess. For several minutes the semi-restored invalid had not spoken a word. In one of his customary day-dreams he had been calmly gazing at the shapely white hand of his hostess, "all queenly with its weight of rings." "Will you permit me to examine those rings a moment?" he said. "Why, certainly. No, you sit still, Mr. Waring," she replied, promptly rising, and, pulling them off her fingers, dropped them into his open palm. With the same dreamy expression on his clear-cut, pallid face, he turned them over and over, held them up to the light, finally selected one exquisite gem, and then, half rising, held forth the others. As she took them and still stood besid
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>  



Top keywords:

rising

 

Reynolds

 

Philippes

 
Pepper
 
Waring
 

Dawson

 

tiempo

 

children

 
number
 

Saturday


chasing
 

officers

 

supper

 

reckon

 

seated

 

fragrant

 

lovely

 

sipping

 
evening
 

reclining


handed

 

sooner

 

playing

 

gallery

 

contentedly

 

dreamy

 

expression

 

pallid

 

pulling

 

fingers


dropped

 

turned

 
finally
 

selected

 

exquisite

 

promptly

 

replied

 
customary
 
dreams
 

calmly


shapely

 
gazing
 

minutes

 

restored

 
invalid
 
spoken
 

hostess

 

moment

 

examine

 

queenly