|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 40
"American girls don't go to stations in floating white clothes and
hats all pink roses. I particularly remember the pink rose," said
Billy gloomily. "No, if she had been going to the station she would
have had on a little blue or gray suit, very up and down, and a
little minute of a hat with just one perky feather. And she'd have a
bag of sorts with her--no girl would rush away to Alexandria without
a bag."
"She could have sent it ahead of her or returned and dressed later
for the station."
"Why the mischief did I tramp off to those bazaars?" said the young
American. "But, see here--weren't you around the hotel after that
yesterday--at tea time?"
"Er--yes--I----"
"And weren't you rather looking out for Miss Beecher? Wouldn't you
have noticed if she had been coming or going?"
Falconer stroked his small mustache and shot a look at Billy out of
the corners of his eyes which expressed his distinct annoyance at
these intrusive demands.
"I don't remember to have met you," said he slowly.
"You haven't. I know your name, but you don't know mine. I am
William B. Hill."
"Ah--Behill."
"No--_B._ Hill. The B is an initial."
"Of what?" said the other casually, and Billy's cheeks grew suddenly
warm.
"Of my middle name," said he, with steady composure. "If we are to
do any team-work you will have to let it go at the William and the
Hill."
"What team-work do you suggest?"
"Find out where she went yesterday. Find out where she is now. What
worries me," he burst out, with ungovernable uneasiness, yet with a
hint of humor at his own extravagant imaginings, "is her talking to
that Turk fellow yesterday--that Captain Kerissen, I think she
called him. She had told me the night before that he was going to
get her some ball tickets or other, and I didn't think anything of
it, but yesterday I thought he had his nerve to come and call upon
her. You see, I passed through the hall and saw them talking. I went
out to the veranda and after he had gone I came in again, but she
was nowhere in sight. Then I went back to the veranda, and in a few
moments she came out, in white with a rose on her hat, and went off
in a car that was ready. Of course Kerissen wasn't in the car, and I
haven't any proof of his connection with the thing, but he might
easily have induced her to look at some mosque or other off the
'beaten track'----"
"But she returned, for later she sent that telegram from the
station," Falconer argued.
Billy was silent. Then he burst out, "But all the same there is a
mystery to this thing.... She--she's too confoundedly young and
pretty to run around alone in this painted jade of a city."
"This city has law and order--much more of them than there are in
your national hotbeds of robbery and murder."
"H'm--well, I don't hold any brief for Chicago--I suppose Chicago is
the target--so I won't defend that. But I've heard stories."
"Queer ones, I should say."
"_Devilish_ queer ones!... How about that young Monkton or Monkhouse
who dropped out of things last winter?"
Falconer looked annoyed. "Oh, there are rumors----"
"Yes, rumors that he flirted with a Turkish lady--that he was on
horseback just outside her carriage during the jam at the
Kasr-el-Nil bridge, and they looked and smiled and afterwards met in
a shop. And rumors that she gave him a _rendezvous_ at her home and
that he told another man about it at the club, who warned him
sharply, and he only laughed.... But it's no rumor that he
disappeared. He's gone, all right, and nobody knows where he went,
and nobody seems to want to know. Officially they said he was
drowned out swimming--or lost in a sandstorm riding in the
desert--or spiked on top of an obelisk or something equally
reasonable--but, privately, people say other things.... No
international law intrudes into the Turkish woman question."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|