Red Pepper's Patients: With an Account of Anne Linton's Case in ParticularRichmond, Grace S. (Grace Smith)
General
Red Pepper's Patients: With an Account of Anne Linton's Case in Particular
Richmond, Grace S. (Grace Smith)
Physicians -- Fiction
Aleck, sliding into the driver's seat and forced to lose sight of
King's tall figure because of the urgency of the crowding mass behind,
was moved to curious speculation. As he turned the designated corner, he
was saying to himself with a chuckle: "He always was quick on the
trigger, but I'll be darned if that wasn't about the hastiest move I
ever saw him make. What's he after, anyhow, in this town where he just
told me he didn't know a soul? Well, it's some wait for me, I'll bet."
If he could have seen his master as that young man plunged along through
the crowd Aleck would have found plenty to interest him. King was doing
his best to pursue and catch up with a figure which he now and again
lost sight of in the throng, so that he slowed his pace lest he go by it
unawares. The fear that he might thus miss and lose it sharpened his
gaze and gave to his face an intent look, so that many people stared at
him as he passed them, wondering what the comely, dark-eyed young man
was after that he was rushing at such a pace.
There came a moment when King paused, uncertain, his heart standing
still with the certainty that he was off the track and that his quarry
had unconsciously doubled and eluded him. An instant later he drew a
quick breath of relief, his gaze following a slender black figure as it
mounted the steps of an old church which stood, dingy but still
dignified, close by the highway, its open doors indicating that it had
remained in this downtown district for a purpose. King sprang up the
steps, then paused in the great doorway, beyond which the darkness and
quiet of an empty interior silently invited passers-by to rest and
reflect. At that moment a deep organ note sounded far away upon the
stillness, and King took a step inside, looking cautiously about him.
The figure he pursued had vanished, and after a moment more he crossed
the vestibule and stood, hat in hand, gazing into the dim depths beyond.
For a little, coming as he had from the strong light of the September
afternoon, he could see absolutely nothing; but as his vision cleared he
was able to make out a small group of people far toward the front of the
spacious interior, and the form of the organist himself before his
manuals low at the right of the choir. But he had to look for some time
before he could descry at the farthermost side of the church a solitary
head bent upon the rail before it. Toward this point the young man
slowly made his way, his heart hammering a most unwonted tattoo within
his broad breast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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