FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   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   >>   >|  
I disclaim any such responsibility. But--there is SOMETHING on Dal's mind." Max came after me. "Don't be cross, Kit. You haven't said a nice word to me today, and you go around bristling with your chin up and two red spots on your cheeks--like whatever-her-name-was with the snakes instead of hair. I don't know why I'm so crazy about you; I always meant to love a girl with a nice disposition." I left him then. Dal had gone into the reception room and closed the doors. And because he had been acting so strangely, and partly to escape from Max, whose eyes looked threatening, I followed him. Just as I opened the door quietly and looked in, Dallas switched off the lights, and I could hear him groping his way across the room. Then somebody--not Dal--spoke from the corner, cautiously. "Is that you, Mr. Brown, sir?" It was Flannigan. "Yes. Is everything here?" "All but the powder, sir. Don't step too close. They're spread all over the place." "Have you taken the curtains down?" "Yes, sir." "Matches?" "Here, sir." "Light one, will you, Flannigan? I want to see the time." The flare showed Dallas and Flannigan bent over the timepiece. And it showed something else. The rug had been turned back from the windows which opened on the street, and the curtains had been removed. On the bare hardwood floor just beneath the windows was an array of pans of various sizes, dish pans, cake tins, and a metal foot tub. The pans were raised from the floor on bricks, and seemed to be full of paper. All the chairs and tables were pushed back against the wall, and the bric-a-brac was stacked on the mantel. "Half an hour yet," Dal said, closing his watch. "Plenty of time, and remember the signal, four short and two long." "Four short and two long--all right, sir." "And--Flannigan, here's something for you, on account." "Thank you, sir." Dal turned to go out, tripped over the rug, said something, and passed me without an idea of my presence. A moment later Flannigan went out, and I was left, huddled against the wall, and alone. It was puzzling enough. "Four long and two short!" "All but the powder!" Not that I believed for a moment what Max had said, and anyhow Flannigan was the sanest person I ever saw in my life. But it all seemed a part of the mystery that had been hanging over us for several days. I felt my way across the room and knelt by the pans. Yes, they were there, full of paper and mounted on bricks.
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Flannigan

 

Dallas

 

opened

 

looked

 

moment

 

powder

 

windows

 
curtains
 

turned

 

showed


bricks

 

SOMETHING

 

pushed

 

tables

 

stacked

 

chairs

 
mantel
 

closing

 

Plenty

 

removed


hardwood

 

beneath

 

raised

 

remember

 

person

 

sanest

 
believed
 

mystery

 

mounted

 

hanging


puzzling

 

tripped

 

passed

 

account

 

responsibility

 

street

 

huddled

 

disclaim

 
presence
 

signal


switched
 
lights
 

quietly

 
groping
 

corner

 
cautiously
 

closed

 

disposition

 

reception

 

acting