FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109  
110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   >>   >|  
amping!" With which pious ejaculation the Baron inspected his smudged and blistered fingers and read again the entertaining message from the Duke of Connecticut. "Why take to the highway," begged Philip guilelessly, "when the task is so unpleasant?" "Ah!" rumbled the Baron, more sombre now, "there is a man with a music-machine--" "There is!" said Philip fervently. The Baron looked hard at His Highness, the Duke of Connecticut. The latter produced his cigarette case and opening it politely for the service of his chief, smiled with good humor. "There is," said he coolly, "a man with a music-machine, a mysterious malady, a stained skin and a volume of Herodotus! Excellency knows the--er--romantic ensemble?" Excellency not only knew him, but for days now, taking up the trail at a certain canal, he had traveled hard over roads strangely littered with hay and food and linen collars--to find that romantic ensemble. He added with grim humor that he fancied the Duke of Connecticut knew him too. The Duke dryly admitted that this might be so. His memory, though conveniently porous at times, was for the most part excellent. "What is he doing?" asked the Baron with an ominous glint of his fine eyes. "Excellency," said Philip, staring hard at the end of his cigarette, "by every subtle device at his command, he is making graceful love to Miss Westfall, who is sufficiently wholesome and happy and absorbed in her gypsy life not to know it--yet!" The Barents explosive "Ah!" was a compound of wrath and outraged astonishment. Philip felt his attitude toward his chief undergoing a subtle revolution. "His discretion," added Philip warmly, "has departed to that forgotten limbo which has claimed his beard." The Baron was staring very hard at the camp fire. "So," said he at last,--"it is for this that I have been--" he searched for an expressive Americanism, and shrugging, invented one, "thunder-cracking along the highway in search of the man Themar saw by the fire of Miss Westfall. 'It is incredible--it can not be!' said I, as I blistered about, searching here, searching there, losing my way and thunder-cracking about in dead of night--all to pick up the trail of a green and white van and a music-machine! 'It is unbelievable--it is a monstrous mistake on the part of Themar!' But, Poynter, this love making, in the circumstances, passes all belief!" The Baron added that twice within the week he had passed
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109  
110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Philip

 

machine

 

Excellency

 

Connecticut

 

staring

 

blistered

 

romantic

 

ensemble

 

subtle

 

Themar


cracking

 

searching

 

thunder

 

making

 

Westfall

 

cigarette

 

highway

 

discretion

 

departed

 

warmly


forgotten

 
amping
 

revolution

 

claimed

 

attitude

 

wholesome

 
absorbed
 
Barents
 
searched
 
astonishment

outraged

 

explosive

 

compound

 

undergoing

 

shrugging

 
unbelievable
 
monstrous
 

mistake

 

passed

 

belief


Poynter

 

circumstances

 

passes

 

search

 
sombre
 

Americanism

 

sufficiently

 
invented
 

rumbled

 

losing