"
"Why not quit right now, Mrs. Clephane?" Harleston suggested.
"I won't quit under fire--and with my mission unaccomplished. Moreover,
this Spencer gang have ruffled my temper--they have aroused my fighting
blood. I never realized I had fighting blood in me until tonight. Mrs.
Spencer's ugly insinuation, topping their attempted abduction of the
evening, has done it. I'm angry all through. Don't I look angry, Mr.
Harleston?"
"You're quite justified in looking so, dear lady; as well as in being
so," Harleston replied. "Only you don't look it now."
"You're a sad flatterer, sir!" she smiled. "Believe me, had you seen me
in the room to which they decoyed me with a false message from you, you
would believe that I can look it--very well look it."
"So that was the way of it!" Harleston exclaimed "Tell me about it, Mrs.
Clephane. I was sure that you were a prisoner somewhere in this hotel;
to find you every room was being inspected."
"Why did you think I was a prisoner in the midst of all this gaiety?"
she asked.
"Because I was lured by a message purporting to be from you to the ninth
floor and garroted. I escaped. However, that is another story; yours
first, my lady."
"You too!" she marvelled.
He nodded.
Pages:
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134