In the Dead of NightMcIntyre, John T. (John Thomas)
General
In the Dead of Night
McIntyre, John T. (John Thomas)
Mystery fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction
When Kenyon smoked hard it was a positive indication of mental unrest.
Against the high-colored background of surprise, suspicion and possible
crime with which the night had daubed his thoughts, was thrown a
brilliant face and a pair of flashing, scornful eyes.
Who was she? Who were they? And what was the mysterious thing which so
held and so moved them all? But more than anything else, how, in the
name of all that was bizarre and astonishing, did he come to be mixed
up in it? No matter what side of the matter he set himself to consider,
he always came back to this particular one. It was a thing absolutely
beyond his comprehension.
For a good two hours he tramped the streets smoking and thinking. If
the girl had not figured in the affair it would have had but little
effect upon him; he was quite well accustomed to startling occurrences,
but her participation troubled him. Otherwise he could have gone
comfortably to bed and forgotten it all.
“There is something decidedly wrong in Selden’s Square,” muttered he,
“something that’s off color and underhand. But what is it? And how does
a girl like that--but she can have nothing to do with anything that’s
not correct. I am positive of that. There is something fine and high
about her.”
Just how he ever came to be walking along the North River front he
never knew. He was so deep in conjecture that he had given no heed to
where his steps had been leading him, and about four o’clock he found
himself in the neighborhood of the Twenty-third Street ferry. Even this
he would not have known had he not suddenly collided with a stoutly
built young man, with fiery red hair, who was just about entering a
railroad cab.
“Hello,” cried this person, sharply. “Have the goodness to look where
you are going, will you? It’s all right and proper, my friend, to carry
as much excess as you can comfortably handle. But don’t try to shoulder
any of it upon a man who has traveled much and is very tired.”
“I beg your pardon,” said Kenyon, stiffly.
The countenance of the other, in the ruddy flare of the cab lamps,
suddenly expanded into a delighted grin.
“Why, dog-bust it, it’s Kenyon!” he almost shouted. “Shake!”
“Garry Webster!” Kenyon gripped the extended hand, equally delighted.
“Why, old boy, this _is_ a surprise.”
Webster shook Kenyon’s hand with the utmost vigor.
“Well, who would ever have thought to meet you here,” cried he. “It’s
been all of ten years since I saw you last, Ken, and a good five
since I heard from you; and here you all but knock the breath out of
me before I’m in New York ten minutes. But I thought you were doing
stunts in South America with a machine gun and a backing of barefooted
patriots.”
“So I was, until a few weeks ago, but--”
“Hold on, tell me about it later. Pile in here,” drawing him toward
the cab door; “kick those bags and things out of the way. I’m for the
Waldorf, and the biggest breakfast they’ve got in the place.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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