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Page 24
In my last letter I scoffed at the idea of a great war. But when
we came back from Limehouse to-night the papers told us that the
Kaiser had signed the order to mobilize. Austria in; Serbia in;
Germany, Russia and France in. Hughes tells me that England is
shortly to follow, and I suppose there is no doubt of it. It is a
frightful thing--this future that looms before us; and I pray that
for you at least it may hold only happiness.
For, my lady, when I write good night, I speak it aloud as I write;
and there is in my voice more than I dare tell you of now.
THE AGONY COLUMN MAN.
Not unwelcome to the violet eyes of the girl from Texas were the
last words of this letter, read in her room that Sunday morning.
But the lines predicting England's early entrance into the war
recalled to her mind a most undesirable contingency. On the previous
night, when the war extras came out confirming the forecast of his
favorite bootblack, her usually calm father had shown signs of panic.
He was not a man slow to act. And she knew that, putty though he
was in her hands in matters which he did not regard as important,
he could also be firm where he thought firmness necessary. America
looked even better to him than usual, and he had made up his mind
to go there immediately. There was no use in arguing with him.
At this point came a knock at her door and her father entered. One
look at his face--red, perspiring and decidedly unhappy--served
to cheer his daughter.
"Been down to the steamship offices," he panted, mopping his bald
head. "They're open to-day, just like it was a week day--but they
might as well be closed. There's nothing doing. Every boat's
booked up to the rails; we can't get out of here for two weeks
--maybe more."
"I'm sorry," said his daughter.
"No, you ain't! You're delighted! You think it's romantic to get
caught like this. Wish I had the enthusiasm of youth." He fanned
himself with a newspaper. "Lucky I went over to the express office
yesterday and loaded up on gold. I reckon when the blow falls it'll
be tolerable hard to cash checks in this man's town."
"That was a good idea."
"Ready for breakfast?" he inquired.
"Quite ready," she smiled.
They went below, she humming a song from a revue, while he glared
at her. She was very glad they were to be in London a little longer.
She felt she could not go, with that mystery still unsolved.
CHAPTER VI
The last peace Sunday London was to know in many weary months went
by, a tense and anxious day. Early on Monday the fifth letter from
the young man of the Agony Column arrived, and when the girl from
Texas read it she knew that under no circumstances could she leave
London now.
It ran:
DEAR LADY FROM HOME: I call you that because the word home has for
me, this hot afternoon in London, about the sweetest sound word
ever had. I can see, when I close my eyes, Broadway at midday;
Fifth Avenue, gay and colorful, even with all the best people away;
Washington Square, cool under the trees, lovely and desirable
despite the presence everywhere of alien neighbors from the district
to the South. I long for home with an ardent longing; never was
London so cruel, so hopeless, so drab, in my eyes. For, as I write
this, a constable sits at my elbow, and he and I are shortly to
start for Scotland Yard. I have been arrested as a suspect in the
case of Captain Fraser-Freer's murder!
I predicted last night that this was to be a red-letter day in the
history of that case, and I also saw myself an unwilling actor in
the drama. But little did I suspect the series of astonishing
events that was to come with the morning; little did I dream that
the net I have been dreading would to-day engulf me. I can scarcely
blame Inspector Bray for holding me; what I can not understand is
why Colonel Hughes--
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