The King of Diamonds: A Tale of Mystery and AdventureTracy, Louis
General
The King of Diamonds: A Tale of Mystery and Adventure
Tracy, Louis
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
"Can't I have a light?" he asked, partly turning toward the room he had
just quitted.
In the neglected garden at the landward front of the Grange House the
horse stood patiently on three legs, ruminating, no doubt, on the
steepness of hills and the excellence of pastures.
Nearly an hour passed thus, in solemn quietude. Then a boy on a bicycle,
red-faced with exertion, pedaled manfully up the hill, and through the
gate.
"I hope he's here," thought he. "It's a long way to coom for nothin'."
Around his waist was a strap with a pouch bearing the king's monogram.
He ran up to the door and gave a couple of thunderous knocks, the
privileged rat-tat of a telegraph messenger.
There was a long delay. Then a heavy step approached, and a man opened
the door, a big, heavy-faced man, with eyes that stared dreadfully, and
a nose damaged in life's transit.
"Philip Anson, Esquire," said the boy, briskly, producing a buff-colored
envelope.
The man seemed to swallow something.
"Yes; he's here. Is that for him?"
"Yes, sir. Any reply?"
The man took the telegram, closed the door, and the boy heard his
retreating footsteps. After some minutes he returned.
"It's too late to reply to-night, isn't it?" he inquired.
"Yes, sir. It coom'd after hours, but they'd paid t' porterage i'
Lunnon, so t' postmistress said ye'd mebbe like to hev it at yance. I've
ridden all t' way frae Scarsdale."
Late that evening, when the protracted gloaming of the north was fast
yielding to the shadows of a cloudy night, the big man from the Grange
House drove into Scarsdale. He pulled up at the Fox and Hounds public
house. He wanted Mr. Green.
Anson's valet came.
"Your master says you are to bring his portmanteau to the Grange House
to-night. He intends remaining there. You must get the landlord to sit
up until you return. It will take you an hour and a half to drive both
ways."
Green was ready in five minutes. He learned that a stable boy must
crouch at their feet to bring the dogcart back. It was the property of
the Fox and Hounds' proprietor.
Very unwillingly the horse swung off again toward the moor. There was
little conversation. The driver was taciturn, the Londoner somewhat
scared by the dark loneliness.
At the Grange House they were met by Philip Anson. He stood in the open
doorway. He held a handkerchief to his lips and spoke in a husky voice,
the voice of one under the stress of great agitation:
"That you, Green? Just give my bag to the driver and return to the
village. Here is a five-pound note. Pay your bill and go back to London
by the first train to-morrow. I stop here some few days."
The astonished servant took the note. Before he could reply, his master
turned, crossed a room feebly lighted by a dull lamp, and passed through
a curtained doorway.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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