Family life -- Fiction; Humorous stories; Saving and investment -- Fiction
Kitty nodded assent.
"You'll have to pay her," she said. "Shall I run up and get your
purse?"
She went, and as she reached the hall, Billy entered. He gazed at
Kitty's garments closely, making mental note of them for future
comparisons, and as he stood aside to let her pass he held one hand
carefully out of sight behind him. It held a package--an oblong
package, sharply rectangular in shape. A close observer would have
said it was a box such as contains fifty cigars when it is full, but
it was not full. Billy had taken one of the cigars out when he made
the purchase at the station cigar store.
VII
THE AMATEUR DETECTIVE
When Billy Fenelby had taken his box of cigars up to his room he
came down again, but he did not go anywhere near Bobberts' bank, as
he should have gone had he intended depositing in it the thirty per
cent. of the value of the cigars, which was the duty due on cigars
under the provisions of the Fenelby Domestic Tariff. He walked out
to the veranda and got into the hammock and began to read the
morning paper.
From time to time he let it hang down over the edge of the hammock,
as if it bored him, and he glanced at the door as if he hoped
someone would come out of the house. The paper was not very
interesting that morning, and Billy had other things to think of. He
had volunteered to keep an eye on Kitty, and to find out definitely,
if he could, whether she was smuggling shirt-waists and other
things--or had already smuggled them--into the house, contrary to
the provisions of the tariff. He felt that the more he saw of girls
the less he liked them, and that the more he saw of Kitty,
particularly, the less he fancied her, but if he was going to do
this amateur detective business he wanted to begin it as soon as
possible, and he watched the door closely. He wanted to see whether
Kitty would still wear the pink shirt-waist she had worn at
breakfast, or the white one she had worn the evening before, or
whether she would dare to wear another.
The sudden departure of Bridget had upset the domestic affairs
somewhat, and Kitty and Mrs. Fenelby were busy in the kitchen, but
after the dishes were washed, and the rooms set to rights, and the
beds made, and Bobberts given his bath, Kitty came out. It had been
a long and tedious morning for Billy. There is nothing so helpless
as a detective who can't work at his business of detecting, and when
the job is to detect a pretty girl, and she won't show up, the
waiting is rather tiresome. At one time Billy was almost tempted to
go in and ask her to come out, and he would probably have gone in
and snooped around a bit, if she had not appeared just then.
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