FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153  
154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   >>   >|  
down and grope along the floor; and then, an instant later, it began to descend the ladder-like steps--and abruptly Rhoda Gray, too, moved forward. It wasn't Danglar. That was what had instantly taken hold of her mind, and she knew a sudden relief now. The man on the stairs--she could see that it was a man now--though he moved silently, swayed in a grotesquely jerky way as though he were lame. It wasn't Danglar! She would go to any length to track Danglar to his lair; but not here--here in the darkness--here in the garret. Here she was afraid of him with a deadly fear; here alone with him there would be a thousand chances of exposure incident to the slightest intimacy he might show the woman whom he believed to be his wife--a thousand chances here against hardly one in any other environment or situation. But the man on the stairs wasn't Danglar. She halted now and uttered a sharp exclamation, as though she had caught sight of the man for the first time. The other, too, had halted--at the foot of the stairs. A plaintive drawl reached her: "Don't screech, Bertha! It's only your devoted brother-in-law. Curse your infernal ladder, and my twisted back!" Danglar's brother! Bertha! She snatched instantly at the cue with an inward gasp of thankfulness. She would not make the mistake of using the vernacular behind which Gypsy Nan sheltered herself. Here was some one who knew that Gypsy Nan was but a role. But she had to remember that her voice was slightly hoarse; that her voice, at least, could not sacrifice its disguise to any one. Danglar had been a little suspicious of it until she had explained that she was suffering from a cold. "Oh!" she said calmly. "It's you, is it? And what brought you here?" "What do you suppose?" he complained irritably. "The same old thing, all I'm good for--to write out code messages and deliver them like an errand boy! It's a sweet job, isn't it? How'd you like to be a deformed little cripple?" She did not answer at once. The night seemed suddenly to be opening some strange, even premonitory, vista. The code messages! Their mode of delivery! Here was the answer! "Maybe I'd like it better than being Gypsy Nan!" she flung back significantly. He laughed out sharply. "I'd like to trade with you," he said, a quick note of genuine envy in his voice. "You can pitch away your clothes; I can't pitch away a crooked spine. And, anyway, after to-night, you'll be living swell again."
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153  
154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Danglar
 

stairs

 

Bertha

 

ladder

 

thousand

 
messages
 
chances
 

answer

 
instantly
 

halted


brother

 

hoarse

 
suffering
 

suspicious

 
slightly
 

irritably

 
explained
 
sacrifice
 

calmly

 

brought


disguise

 

complained

 

suppose

 

strange

 

sharply

 

laughed

 

significantly

 

genuine

 

living

 

clothes


crooked

 
deformed
 

cripple

 

errand

 

delivery

 
premonitory
 

suddenly

 
opening
 

remember

 
deliver

screech
 

length

 
darkness
 
grotesquely
 

garret

 

afraid

 
incident
 

slightest

 
intimacy
 

exposure