FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   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   >>   >|  
in it he was hardly conscious of perhaps himself, he asked in an off-hand way: "Then why did you take such pains to wash your hands of the affair the moment you had left the hotel?" "I do not understand." "You passed around the corner into--street, did you not?" "Very likely. I could go that way as well as another." "And stopped at the first lamp-post?" "Oh, I see. Someone saw that childish action of mine." "What did you mean by it?" "Just what you have suggested. I did go through the pantomime of washing my hands of an affair I considered definitely ended. I had resisted an irrepressible impulse to see and talk with Miss Challoner again, and was pleased with my firmness. Unaware of the tragic blow which had just fallen, I was full of self-congratulations at my escape from the charm which had lured me back to this hotel again and again in spite of my better judgment, and I wished to symbolise my relief by an act of which I was, in another moment, ashamed. Strange that there should have been a witness to it. (Here he stole a look at Sweetwater.) Stranger still, that circumstances by the most extraordinary of coincidences, should have given so unforeseen a point to it." "You are right, Mr. Brotherson. The whole occurrence is startling and most strange. But life is made up of the unexpected, as none know better than we physicians, whether our practice be of a public or private character." As Mr. Brotherson left the room, the curiosity to which he had yielded once before, led him to cast a glance of penetrating inquiry behind him full at Sweetwater, and if either felt embarrassment, it was not the hunted but the hunter. But the feeling did not last. "I've simply met the strongest man I've ever encountered," was Sweetwater's encouraging comment to himself. "All the more glory if I can find a joint in his armour or a hidden passage to his cold, secretive heart." XI. ALIKE IN ESSENTIALS "Mr. Gryce, I am either a fool or the luckiest fellow going. You must decide which." The aged detective, thus addressed, laid down his evening paper and endeavoured to make out the dim form he could just faintly discern standing between him and the library door. "Sweetwater, is that you?" "No one else. Sweetwater, the fool, or Sweetwater, much too wise for his own good. I don't know which. Perhaps you can find out and tell me." A grunt from the region of the library table, then the sarcastic re
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   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   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Sweetwater

 

affair

 

moment

 
Brotherson
 
library
 

encountered

 
practice
 

strongest

 

encouraging

 

public


comment
 

glance

 

penetrating

 

inquiry

 

curiosity

 
yielded
 

feeling

 

private

 

simply

 
character

hunter

 
embarrassment
 

hunted

 

luckiest

 

faintly

 

discern

 

standing

 
region
 

sarcastic

 

Perhaps


ESSENTIALS

 

hidden

 

armour

 

passage

 

secretive

 

fellow

 

evening

 

endeavoured

 

addressed

 

decide


detective

 

coincidences

 

action

 

childish

 

Someone

 

suggested

 
irrepressible
 

resisted

 

impulse

 

pantomime