The AvengerOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
The Avenger
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Mystery fiction
"Mr. Wrayson," he said, "perhaps I'm not so far off, after all. Other
people can find out what he knows," he added, pointing at Heneage. "He
ain't the only one who can see through a brick wall. Say, Mr. Wrayson,
you've always treated me fair and square," he added, leaning towards him
and dropping his voice. "Can you tell me this? Did Morry ever go
swaggering about calling himself by any other name--bit more tony, eh?"
Wrayson started. For a moment he did not reply. Thoughts were rushing
through his brain. Was he forestalled in his search for this girl?
Meanwhile, Barnes watched him with a cunning gleam in his deep-set eyes.
"Such as Augustus Howard, eh? Real tony name that for Morry!"
Wrayson, with a sudden instinctive knowledge, brushed him on one side,
and half standing up, gazed across the room at the corner from which his
questioner had come. With her back against the wall, her cheap prettiness
marred by her red eyes, her ill-arranged hair, and ugly hat, sat, beyond
a doubt, the girl for whom he had waited in the promenade.
CHAPTER XXXV
HIS WIFE
Wrayson drew a little breath and looked back at Sydney Barnes.
"You asked me a question," he said. "I believe I have heard of your
brother calling himself by some such name."
Barnes grasped him by the arm.
"Look here," he said, "come and repeat that to the young lady over there.
She's with me. It won't do you any harm."
Wrayson rose to his feet, but before he could move he felt Heneage's hand
fall upon his arm.
"Where are you going, Wrayson?" he asked.
Barnes looked up at him anxiously. His pale face seemed twisted
into a scowl.
"Don't you interfere!" he exclaimed. "You've done me enough harm, you
have. You let Mr. Wrayson pass. He's coming with me."
Heneage took no more notice of him than he would of a yapping terrier. He
looked over his head into Wrayson's eyes.
"Wrayson," he said, "don't have anything more to do with this business.
Take my advice. I know more than you do about it. If you go on, I swear
to you that there is nothing but misery at the end."
"I know more than you think I do," Wrayson answered quietly. "I know more
indeed than you have any idea of. If the end were in hell I should not
hold back."
Heneage hesitated for a moment. He stood there with darkening face, an
obstinate, almost a threatening figure. Passers-by looked with a gleam of
interest at the oddly assorted trio, whose conversation was obviously far
removed from the ordinary chatter of the loungers about the place. One or
two made an excuse to linger by--it seemed possible that there might be
developments. Heneage, however, disappointed them. He turned suddenly
upon his heel and left the room. Those who had the curiosity to follow
along the corridor saw him, without glancing to the right or to the left,
descend the stairs and walk out of the building. He had the air of a man
who abandons finally a hopeless task.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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