Artists -- Juvenile fiction; France -- Juvenile fiction; Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction; Young women -- Juvenile fiction
And Cynthia was in 374, right across the little corridor. The passport
in her hand was Canadian, and Miss Mitchall had said ... “Look here,”
Cynthia said suddenly, “could my roommate be called? I think she might
be able to help us;” and added, “you can be sure she won’t talk.”
The captain glanced dubiously at Stasia’s father. “The less people who
know about this ...” then, at the other’s nodded gesture toward the
purser, “ask her to come here,” he commanded gruffly.
Miss Mitchall, slightly fluttering, was produced almost immediately.
Cynthia didn’t try to explain the circumstances, just showed her the
passport. “Did you ever see this man? I mean, does he look familiar?”
Squinting near-sightedly, the little governess examined the picture,
then passed it back with a shake of her head. “No, my dear. I’ve never
seen him.”
There was a sigh in the cabin. But Cynthia had not finished. That
teasing idea of hers ... Miss Mitchall had once told her something that
bore on this. ... “Then if not that man, someone very like him?”
“Someone like him, surely. But not that man. Probably a twin brother. I
was a twin myself.”
So that was it. Cynthia’s memory had almost, but not quite, done the
trick.
“By Gad!” barked the Captain, “the woman has brains! Where did you see
this man, madame?” His tone was weighty with respect.
“In the cabin across from 374. Once the door was open as I passed and
he was shaving, with the light full on his face. There was quite a scar
on his cheek. He shut the door with a slam when he saw me.”
Cynthia was still looking at the passport in her hand. “Was this man
from Ottawa, the one you wanted?” she asked. Then gasped.
It was almost as though she had sprung a mine, so laughably surprised
were the faces about her. “How did you know that?” the Captain’s gruff
tones held suspicion.
But Cynthia had suddenly remembered the suitcase she had stumbled over
the first day, and the dark patch that showed some label had been
removed from it. “You see,” she explained further, “I’m accustomed to
remembering the shapes and colors of things, perhaps more than most
people do because that’s part of my job. I remembered an Ottawa paster
on the suitcase because of a certain clever arrangement of colors,
green and blue and orange.”
Mr. Carruthers stopped her with a gesture. Stepping into the doorway he
spoke a moment in a low voice to the steward outside then returned to
the room. “Will you describe this label for us, or could you draw it?”
“It’s something like this.” Cynthia took the pencil out of her pocket
and made a little diagram on a blank page of her note book. “It had an
orange moon and a tower, rather medieval, dark blue against it. Then
there was a jiggley border of green, in this manner.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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