The Lightning Conductor Discovers AmericaWilliamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
General
The Lightning Conductor Discovers America
Williamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
Automobiles -- Fiction
Hotel halls seem to be fatal to me lately. I shall get jumpy going into
one. Caspian was lying in wait for me to appear with Miss Moore and the
Winstons, we having "lost" the others and gone for a walk. Camera-eyes
was with him, and I thought it was touch and go for me. However, I
turned the tables by doing the camera-eye act myself. Also, I gave
Dick's hand a friendly grip. You remember that he's a Mason? Going away,
he contrived to palm me a card with a scrawled address: a small hotel
where he was spending the night.
Late in the evening I walked round there, taking it for granted that
Dick would be in, and that he had recognized me with certainty despite
the lapse of time. I counted on his not giving me away to his employer,
so I didn't hurry to pay my respects. And I hadn't trusted the old chap
in vain. He was loyal to Caspian, so far as not betraying any
instructions he may have had; but he did not mind admitting that he'd
come from New York to Boston on receipt of a telegram. I felt I owed him
the reward of an explanation, so gave a somewhat garbled one, in which
Dick was intensely interested. He confessed that he was "flabbergasted"
at sight of "the gentleman he'd come to be introduced to" (me) and for
once was disinclined to believe his eyes. He promised silence, refused a
reward, as near the V.C. as I'm able to bestow, and I told him to call
on you. You're sure to hear from him soon.
This is the second narrow escape I've had within a week. I oughtn't to
take these risks till I'm ready to face the consequences, whatever they
may be. But I'd do more to be in sight of Patricia Moore's profile which
is about all I see of her in the car these days when (in every sense of
the word) I'm obliged to take "a back seat." Do, for heaven's sake,
finish up your end of the business and give me a free hand, since you
yourself say I may in honour take it. I probably should take it even if
you said the opposite--that I tell you frankly, as I believe I've told
you before. But it's good to have your backing.
I've been to Plymouth to-day, thanks to a chap I've hired to do my work
for me, and have returned to Boston, which we shall leave to-morrow for
good and all. Caspian had an accident just before starting time--had
been out in a taxi on a hurried errand to some shop, and the chauffeur,
trying to be helpful, banged the door with C.'s finger in it. The finger
was in a glove, or the hurt would have been more serious, but even as it
was, when he tried to take the wheel of the G.-G. he found the pain
unbearable. I was called--like a male Cinderella--from the ashes (those
of a cigarette) and ordered to drive. In an instant the secretary had
become the chauffeur. I can do these fairy godmother trick-acts like
lightning; and as Miss Moore didn't think it necessary to change her
seat, I knew that Fate was going, anyhow, to give me one good day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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