The Lightning Conductor Discovers AmericaWilliamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
General
The Lightning Conductor Discovers America
Williamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
Automobiles -- Fiction
Much as I wanted to know, however, I dared not turn. Does a mouse turn
to the mice behind it and say, "Here is Mr. Camera-eyed Cat?" No! We
walked along, my knees feeling like pats of butter, and presently Ed
Caspian and his companion blocked our way, filling the whole horizon. "I
want to introduce my friend Mr. Moyle, Mrs. Winston," said Ed. "And Mr.
Moyle, this is Mr. Peter Storm."
Beads of perspiration came out on my nose, which Aunt Mary always used
to tell me was most unladylike and ought never to happen. My heart and I
just stood still together!
Murmuring something more like a hiccup than a "How do you do?" I saw
Peter use his eyes like grappling irons on the camera-eyes of Mr. Moyle.
Then his magnetism, like a band of pirates, swarmed aboard of the
other's mentality. He put out his hand and shook the hand of the man,
whether Camera eyed Dick wished to shake hands or not, and with that
shake, the lamp seemed suddenly to be snatched away from behind the
aquamarines.
"How do you do, Mr. Moyle? Pleased to meet you," Peter said slowly.
"Pleased to meet _you_," echoed Mr. Moyle. His Shakespearean forehead
had turned red, and there was a slight gasp in his voice, a tone sliding
up instead of down. His queer eyes (rather bald-looking because his
light lashes curl right up and away from them, leaving them very wide
open) turned off their lights, as I said. But though they were vacant
compared to what they had been when professionally on the alert, they
had a curious effect as if they would _burst_ if he couldn't laugh. This
may have been produced by the lashes turning up so much. I couldn't make
it out at all, anyhow. And the whole _affair_ is past my making out.
Now, what should _you_ say Peter did to quell Camera-eyed Dick? Was it
the look, or was it the way he shook hands?
For he _was_ quelled. There's no doubt--or very little doubt--about
that. He was _friendly_ with Peter Storm. He and Peter and Caspian
talked together, and it was Camera-eyes who went away first. Ed was
ready to _cry_, I'm sure.
I asked Jack afterward (of course I breathed not a word to Pat), and he
said that she and he had guessed nothing of what was going on under the
surface of the introduction. They hadn't heard Peter's give-away words;
and without that clue there was no reason to suspect.
I shan't sleep to-night because of that "misunderstood virtue" of mine.
In other words, Curiosity is gnawing my vitals.
Your modern Pandora, alias
MOLLY.
XXIII
PETER STORM TO JAMES STRICKLAND
_Boston._
DEAR STRICKLAND:
Caspian has "let loose the dogs of war" on me, or, rather, the first dog
is loose. There will no doubt be others yapping on my track. You'll grin
when I tell you the first of the breed was your old henchman,
Camera-eyed Dick!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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