Detective and mystery stories; New Jersey -- Fiction; Telephone operators -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
At the Junction she was going to get off, take the branch line to
Hazelmere and transfer there to the Philadelphia Express. In the women’s
waiting-room, which would probably be deserted at that hour, she
intended taking off Sylvia’s coat and hair and reappearing as the modest
and insignificant lady’s maid. She had thought this out in the
afternoon, deciding that Sylvia would probably communicate with her
mother in the morning and that the theft would then be discovered.
Inquiries started for the woman who had been seen on the train would
lead to nothing, as that woman would have dropped out of sight at the
Junction.
Everything worked without a hitch. The waiting-room was empty and she
had ample time to take off the hair and put it in the bag, hang the coat
over her arm with the lining turned out, and even pinch the small, soft
hat into another shape. No one would have thought the woman who went
into the waiting-room was the woman who came out.
And then came the first mishap—as she opened the door she stepped almost
into Dr. Fowler. She was terror stricken, but even then neither her luck
nor her wits left her, for almost the first sentence he uttered showed
her that he knew of the elopement and gave her a lead what to say. She
must have been a pretty nervy woman the way she jumped at that lead.
Right off the bat she invented the story about being sent by Sylvia to
Philadelphia—to wait there at the Bellevue-Stratford.
The Doctor was furious and ordered her into his auto. There was nothing
for it but to obey and in she got, sitting in the back. As she was
stepping up, he close beside her, she remembered the gold mesh purse
plain in her hand. Like a flash she bent forward and jammed it down
between the back and seat.
The ride up the Riven Rock Road was just as the Doctor described it. It
was after the lamp had been broken and he was back in the car starting
it up, that she slipped out. She was determined to get away with all her
loot and took the bag and coat with her, but between the hurry and fear
of the moment forgot the purse.
She wandered through the woods till she saw a small scattering of lights
which she took for one of the branch line stations. When the dawn came
she had lost some of her nerve and felt it was too risky to carry the
extra things. So she hid them at the root of a tree, took off the hat,
tying the veil over her head, and walked across the fields to the
station. As it was Monday morning there were a lot of laborers, men and
women, on the platform. She mingled with them, looking like them in her
muddy clothes and tied up head, and got away to Hazelmere without being
noticed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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