Adventure stories; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction
"On the arrival at Vienna of the through mail train from Budapest on
Thursday night a fashionably dressed female was found alone in a
first-class compartment, stabbed to the heart. The police inquiries have
established her identity as Cora Lestrade, a notorious American
ex-convict, who is believed to have practised on the credulity of highly
placed personages in nearly every European capital. At the time of her
death she was traveling as the Countess Poniatowski. A man who was in
another compartment of the train, dressed as a Roman priest, but who is
supposed to be one of the band of professional criminals ruled by this
extraordinary woman, has been arrested in connection with the
occurrence."
Forsyth laid the paper down—Sybil told him a month later that it was
"with a sigh of relief"—and said:
"She seemed to expect something of the sort when she spoke about her
death sentence and showed such fear of the man Benzon. But isn’t Uncle
Jem’s intuition marvelous? He has always held that the confederacy would
come to loggerheads and be no longer dangerous after our victorious
tussle with them."
"Yes, dear," Sybil assented, dutifully. "Your uncle is a very remarkable
man, with very remarkable gifts." But she did not add, as she might have
added had she so chosen, that it had required a woman’s knowledge of
woman’s heart to inspire in the General the insight which had steered
the Duke’s storm-tossed bark to harbor.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account