The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Double Four, by E. Phillips Oppenheim

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Title: The Double Four

Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim

Release Date: February 15, 2009 [EBook #28091]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE DOUBLE FOUR

By E. Phillips Oppenheim

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD
London, New York, Toronto & Melbourne
First published _September 1911_.
_Reprinted October 1911_.
Shilling Edition _April 1913_.
_Reprinted February 1917_.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CONTENTS

1. THE DESIRE OF MADAME

2. THE AMBASSADOR'S WIFE

3. THE MAN FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT

4. THE FIRST SHOT

5. THE SEVEN SUPPERS OF ANDREA KORUST

6. THE MISSION OF MAJOR KOSUTH

7. THE GHOSTS OF HAVANA HARBOUR

8. AN ALIEN SOCIETY

9. THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN

10. THE THIRTEENTH ENCOUNTER

THE DOUBLE FOUR

CHAPTER I

THE DESIRE OF MADAME

"_It is the desire of Madame that you should join our circle here
on Thursday evening next, at ten o'clock._--SOGRANGE."

The man looked up from the sheet of notepaper which he held in his hand,
and gazed through the open French windows before which he was standing.
It was a very pleasant and very peaceful prospect. There was his croquet
lawn, smooth-shaven, the hoops neatly arranged, the chalk mark firm and
distinct upon the boundary. Beyond, the tennis court, the flower
gardens, and to the left the walled fruit garden. A little farther away
was the paddock and orchard, and a little farther still the farm, which
for the last four years had been the joy of his life. His meadows were
yellow with buttercups; a thin line of willows showed where the brook
wound its lazy way through the bottom fields. It was a home, this, in
which a man could well lead a peaceful life, could dream away his days
to the music of the west wind, the gurgling stream, the song of bi