FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183  
184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   >>  
because less influenced by the mysterious night and the silence, and the intensity of thought which fixed itself relentlessly in some particular cells of the brain until they became fevered and ached horribly. A little puff of cooler air began to blow over the baked and withered camp; but the room where the lamp was burning had become intolerably hot, and the mosquitoes which had been contemplating the wall thoughtfully throughout the day began to buzz about and to sing in the ears of the two persons who sat there. 'Damn these mosquitoes!' said Peter, and his voice broke the silence of the lonely house oddly. He and Toffy had not spoken since Ross had left the room, and had not stirred from their chairs; but now the feeling of tension seemed to be broken. Toffy began to fidget with some things on a little table, and opened without thinking a carved cedar-wood work-box which had remained undisturbed until then. He found inside it a little knitted silk sock only half-finished, and with the knitting needles still in it, and he closed the lid of the box again softly. Peter walked into the corridor and looked out at the silver night. There was a mist rising down by the river, and the feeling of coolness in the air increased. He leaned against the wooden framework of the wire-netting and laid his head on his hands for a moment; then he came back to the drawing-room. 'Do you believe it?' he said suddenly and sharply. 'I suppose it's true,' said Toffy. 'God help us, Peter, this is a queer world!' 'If it were any one else but Purvis!' said Peter with a groan. He had begun to walk restlessly up and down, making his tramp as long as possible by extending it into the corridor. 'And then there is this to be said, Toffy,' he added, beginning to speak at the point to which his thoughts had taken him--'there is this to be said: suppose one could get Purvis out of this hole, Dunbar is waiting for him at Taco. He will be tried for the affair of the _Rosana_ and other things besides, and if he is not hanged he will spend the next few years of his life in prison. It is an intolerable business,' he said, 'and I am not going to move in the matter. One can stand most things, but not being mixed up in a murder case.' He walked out into the corridor and sat down heavily in one of the deck-chairs there. There was a tumult of thought surging through his mind, and sometimes one thing was uppermost, sometimes another. I
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183  
184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   >>  



Top keywords:
things
 

corridor

 
chairs
 
feeling
 

mosquitoes

 

Purvis

 

suppose

 

walked

 

silence

 
thought

netting

 

moment

 
making
 
restlessly
 
drawing
 

sharply

 
suddenly
 
matter
 

prison

 

intolerable


business

 

uppermost

 

surging

 

tumult

 

murder

 
heavily
 
thoughts
 

framework

 

extending

 

beginning


Dunbar
 
waiting
 

hanged

 

affair

 
Rosana
 
needles
 

contemplating

 

thoughtfully

 

intolerably

 
burning

persons

 

withered

 

relentlessly

 
intensity
 

influenced

 
mysterious
 

cooler

 

fevered

 

horribly

 

lonely