Brock
will ride over the Brenner Pass and catch a train somewhere, before his
escape is discovered. I expect to meet him in Paris day after to-morrow.
Have you heard from Roxbury?"
"No!" wailed Roxbury's wife.
"He's a brute!" stormed Miss Fowler.
"Constance!" flared Mrs. Medcroft, aghast at this sign of lese-majesty.
"Don't tell anybody," called Constance, as she banged the door behind
her.
Soon after midnight a closely veiled lady drove up to a street corner
adjacent to the city prison, a dolorous-looking building which loomed up
still and menacing just ahead. She alighted and, dismissing the cab,
strode off quickly into the side street. At a distant corner, in front
of a crowded eating-house, two spirited horses, saddled and in charge of
a grumbling stable-boy, champed noisily at their bits. The young woman
exchanged a few rapid sentences with the boy, and then returned in the
direction from which she came. A man stepped out of a doorway as she
neared the corner, accosting her with a stealthy deference that
proclaimed him to be anything but an unwelcome marauder.
The conversation which passed between the slender, nervous young woman
and this burly individual was carried on in very cautious tones,
accompanied by many quick and furtive glances in all directions, as if
both were in fear of observers. At last, after eager pleading on one
side and stolid expostulation on the other, a small package passed from
the hand of the young woman into the huge paw of the man.
Pages:
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132