Booksellers and bookselling -- Fiction; Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.) -- Fiction; Mystery and detective stories
She gave Sartor Resartus what is graphically described as a "once
over," and then seeing the morning Times lying on the table, picked it
up, as she had not read it. Her eye fell upon the column headed
LOST AND FOUND
Fifty cents an agate line
and as she had recently lost a little pearl brooch, she ran hastily
through it. She chuckled a little over
LOST--Hotel Imperial lavatory, set of teeth. Call or communicate
Steel, 134 East 43 St. Reward, no questions asked.
Then she saw this:
LOST--Copy of Thomas Carlyle's "Oliver Cromwell," between Gissing
Street, Brooklyn, and the Octagon Hotel. If found before midnight,
Tuesday, Dec. 3, return to assistant chef, Octagon Hotel.
"Why" she exclaimed, "Gissing Street--that's here! And what a funny
kind of book for an assistant chef to read. No wonder their lunches
have been so bad lately!"
When Roger and Helen rejoined her in the den a few minutes later she
showed the bookseller the advertisement. He was very much excited.
"That's a funny thing," he said. "There's something queer about that
book. Did I tell you about it? Last Tuesday--I know it was then
because it was the evening young Gilbert was here--a man with a beard
came in asking for it, and it wasn't on the shelf. Then the next
night, Wednesday, I was up very late writing, and fell asleep at my
desk. I must have left the front door ajar, because I was waked up by
the draught, and when I went to close the door I saw the book sticking
out a little beyond the others, in its usual place. And last night,
when the Corn Cobs were here, I went out to look up a quotation in it,
and it was gone again."
"Perhaps the assistant chef stole it?" said Titania.
"But if so, why the deuce would he advertise having done so?" asked
Roger.
"Well, if he did steal it," said Helen, "I wish him joy of it. I tried
to read it once, you talked so much about it, and I found it dreadfully
dull."
"If he did steal it," cried the bookseller, "I'm perfectly delighted.
It shows that my contention is right: people DO really care for good
books. If an assistant chef is so fond of good books that he has to
steal them, the world is safe for democracy. Usually the only books
any one wants to steal are sheer piffle, like Making Life Worth While
by Douglas Fairbanks or Mother Shipton's Book of Oracles. I don't mind
a man stealing books if he steals good ones!"
"You see the remarkable principles that govern this business," said
Helen to Titania. They sat down by the fire and took up their knitting
while the bookseller ran out to see if the volume had by any chance
returned to his shelves.
"Is it there?" said Helen, when he came back.
"No," said Roger, and picked up the advertisement again. "I wonder why
he wants it returned before midnight on Tuesday?"
"So he can read it in bed, I guess," said Helen. "Perhaps he suffers
from insomnia."
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