From a waistcoat pocket she pulled out a small leather cigarette case,
still warm from the wearer's breast--another proof, if she had let
herself think of it, that he had not long been dead. In the leather
case, behind a store of tightly packed cigarettes, was a card--the
cheapest sort of visiting card, on which, scrawled in pencil, was the
name Lorenz Czerny. On the back of this card, in a different
handwriting, but also in pencil, a memorandum had been scribbled. A
glance showed Clo that it consisted of names, abbreviated addresses, and
the hours of appointments, or perhaps of trains. She did not stop to
examine the card thoroughly, but slipped it into her pocket for future
reference, and went on with her task.
The sealed envelope she sought was too large not to protrude over the
top of any pocket of a man's indoor coat; but Clo reflected that the
envelope might have been destroyed, and the contents distributed, or
folded into smaller compass. With this idea she spared herself nothing
in her quest; but the sole reward she had (save for the cigarette case)
was the finding of a paragraph cut from a newspaper, a roll of
blood-stained greenbacks, which she hastily replaced, and a torn silk
handkerchief. The newspaper cutting told of Roger Sands' magnificent
house in Newport, whither he and his "beautiful young bride" would
shortly move. This also Clo annexed, in order that no connection should
seem to exist between Beverley Sands and the man Peterson when the
police got to work. The handkerchief she took from the coat pocket into
which it had been untidily stuffed, in order to search underneath. But
the nervous jerk she gave pulled out something else also--something
small, which fell to the floor with a tinkle as of a tiny stone striking
wood, when it touched a chair leg, and rolled under the chest of
drawers. Clo had not time to see what the thing was. There was only a
flashing glimpse of a pebble-like object as it disappeared. But her
heart leaped at the thought of what it might be. Thrusting the ragged
handkerchief into a pocket already examined, she had just stooped to
peer under the clumsy piece of furniture when a telephone bell began to
ring.
The girl sprang to her feet, quivering and alert. It seemed that the
bell had rung almost in her ear. Someone was calling for Peterson!
XXI
"KIT!"
Somehow Clo got to the telephone, which was placed on the wall by the
door, and her hand trembled on the receiver before she realized that the
bell which rang was in the adjoining room. There was no communicating
door between, but the wall must be almost as thin as cardboard, for the
noise seemed to smite her ear-drum. For an instant Clo's relief was
overwhelming; but as the shrill noise struck her nerves blow after blow,
they rebelled. Her brain refused to work until, suddenly, blessed
silence fell.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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