Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Novelists -- Fiction; Secretaries -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction; West Indies -- Fiction
One of my favorite methods of making the acquaintance of probable
victims is through the advertising columns of newspapers. I have found
no better medium for the purpose than the "Personals" in the New York
Herald; it is generally to be supposed that a masculine individual who
will use that column or reply to anything contained therein is good game
for my purpose.
Naturally my attention was attracted to your announcement that you
wanted a typewritist to accompany you to the West Indies for the winter.
I wrote as modest and taking an answer as I knew how and the fact that
it proved most attractive to you out of a hundred you received justified
my judgment. The next thing was to hold you fast, when you came to see
me, and here again I flatter myself that I evinced the right sort of
talent. I sized you up at the start for what you were--a good-natured,
easily-led gentleman of means, who would answer very well for my
purpose.
Now, see how I proceeded: To have accepted your offer at once would have
been to awaken your suspicions. I knew better than that, and I played
what is technically known as a waiting game. As I look back on our
primary interviews and correspondence I do not see a wrong step on my
part. I wrote you that I could be seen "only between the hours of two
and four," to give you the impression that I was no ordinary girl who
would go anywhere, or with any one, and whom you could lead with a
thread.
You were to come at my hours; I knew you would like that. You came, but
it was I who saw and conquered. You told me at once that you had
engaged berths for two on the Madiana. This showed that you were not
likely to back out, but I did not take your word alone. I had a friend
verifying your statement at Cook's office within an hour after you left
my room.
Had I told you that I would go, that afternoon, you would have had a
chance to think it over and perhaps to change your mind. It is the
fleeing bird that attracts the attention of the hunter. You gave me the
name of "David Camwell, Lambs Club," which before I slept that night I
had turned into Donald Camran, from a list of members which I was easily
able to procure. I learned that Donald Camran was rich; that he was
considered erratic; that he answered your description in personal
appearance; and that he had been, as you said, recently ill.
The next time you adopt a false name do not use your own initials.
Nine-tenths of the people who do this slip up on that banana peel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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