Adventure stories; Islands -- Fiction; Journalists -- Fiction; Love stories; Science fiction; South Pacific Ocean -- Fiction
"Yah!" growled Chillingworth, "it's breaking up the whole staff,
that's what it's doin'. You'll all want cut-glass typewriters next."
"If I should sail to-day," observed St. George, quite as if he were
boarding a Sound steamer, "I'd like to take on at least two men. And
I'd like Amory and Cawthorne. You could hardly go yourself, could
you, Mr. Chillingworth?"
"No, I couldn't," growled Chillingworth, "I've got to keep my tastes
down. And I've got to save up to buy kid gloves for the staff. Look
here--" he added, and hesitated.
"Yes?" St. George complied in some surprise.
"Bennietod's half sick anyway," said Chillingworth, "he's thin as
water, and if you would care--"
"By all means then," St. George assented heartily, "I would care
immensely. Bennietod sick is like somebody else healthy. Will you
mind getting Amory on the wire when he calls up, and tell him to
show up without fail at my place at noon to-day? And to wait there
for me."
Little Cawthorne, with a pair of shears quite a yard long, was
sitting at his desk clipping jokes for the fiction page. He was
humming a weary little tune to the effect that "Billy Enny took a
penny but now he hadn't many--Lookie They!" with which he whiled
away the hours of his gravest toil, coming out strongly on the
"Lookie They!" until Benfy on the floor above pounded for quiet
which he never got.
"Cawthorne," said St. George, "it may be that I'm leaving to-night
on the yacht for an island out in the southeast. And the chief says
that you and Amory are to go along. Can you go?"
Little Cawthorne's blue eyes met St. George's steadily for a moment,
and without changing his gaze he reached for his hat.
"I can get the page done in an hour," he promised, "and I can pack
my thirty cents in ten minutes. Will that do?"
St. George laughed.
"Ah, well now, this goes," he said. "Ask Chillingworth. Don't tell
any one else."
"'Billy Enny took a penny,'" hummed Little Cawthorne in perfect
tranquillity.
St. George set off at once for the McDougle Street house. A thousand
doubts beset him and he felt that if he could once more be face to
face with the amazing prince these might be better cleared away.
Moreover, the glimpses which the prince had given him of a world
which seemed to lie as definitely outside the bourne of present
knowledge as does death itself filled St. George with unrest, spiced
his incredulity with wonder, and he found himself longing to talk
more of the things at which the strange man had hinted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account