Detective and mystery stories, English; Police -- Fiction; Short stories
determined, to extricate him from the perilous position in which he
stood. I went out of the room, and remained absent for some time; then
suddenly entered with a sort of bounce, walked swiftly, and with a
determined air, straight up to the box where he was seated, grasped him
tightly by the arm, and exclaimed roughly, "So I have found you at
last!" There was no start, no indication of fear whatever--not the
slightest; the expression of his countenance, as he peevishly replied,
"What the devil do you mean?" was simply one of surprise and annoyance.
"I beg your pardon," I replied; "the waiter told me a friend of mine,
one _Bagshawe_, who has given me the slip, was here, and I mistook you
for him."
He courteously accepted my apology, quietly remarking at the same time
that though his own name was Bristowe, he had, oddly enough, an uncle in
the country of the same name as the person I had mistaken him for.
Surely, thought I, this man is guiltless of the crime imputed to him;
and yet---- At this moment the porter entered to announce the arrival of
the gentleman I had sent for. I went out; and after giving the new-comer
instructions not to lose sight of Mr. Bristowe, hastened home to make
arrangements for the journey.
Transformed, by the aid of a flaxen wig, broad-brimmed hat, green
spectacles, and a multiplicity of waistcoats and shawls, into a heavy
and elderly, well-to-do personage, I took my way with Josiah
Barnes--whom I had previously thoroughly drilled as to speech and
behavior towards our companions--to the Saracen's Head a few minutes
previous to the time for starting. We found Mr. Bristowe already seated;
but the "three friends," I observed, were curiously looking on, desirous
no doubt of ascertaining _who_ were to be their fellow-travelers before
venturing to coop themselves up in a space so narrow, and, under
certain circumstances, so difficult of egress. My appearance and that of
Barnes--who, sooth to say, looked much more of a simpleton than he
really was--quite reassured them, and in they jumped with confident
alacrity. A few minutes afterwards the "all right" of the attending
ostlers gave the signal for departure, and away we started.
A more silent, less social party I never assisted at. Whatever amount of
"feast of reason" each or either of us might have silently enjoyed, not
a drop of "flow of soul" welled up from one of the six insides. Every
passenger seemed to have his own peculiar reasons for declining to
display himself in either mental or physical prominence. Only one or two
incidents--apparently unimportant, but which I carefully noted down in
the tablet of my memory--occurred during the long, wearisome journey,
till we stopped to dine at about thirty miles from Kendal; when I
ascertained, from an over-heard conversation of one of the three with
the coachman, that they intended to get down at a roadside tavern more
than six miles on this side of that place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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