The Pawns CountOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
The Pawns Count
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Detective and mystery stories
"Don't ask me," Van Teyl replied. "Seems to me you were a bit rough on
him, anyway. I don't see why the fellow shouldn't have a day's holiday
before he gets to work. If I had his swing, it would interfere with my
career, I know that, well enough."
"Did you recognise the man with whom he was playing?" Pamela inquired.
"Can't say that I did. His face seems familiar, too."
"Go and see if you can find out his name," Pamela begged. "It isn't
ordinary curiosity. I really want to know."
"That's easy enough," Van Teyl replied, rising from his place. "And
I'll order tea at the same time."
Pamela leaned a little further back in her chair. Her eyes seemed to be
fixed upon the pleasant prospect of wooded slopes and green,
upward-stretching sward. As a matter of fact, she saw only two faces--
Fischer's and Lutchester's. Her chief impulse in life for the immediate
present seemed to have resolved itself into a fierce, almost a
passionate curiosity. It was the riddle of those two brains which she
was so anxious to solve. ... Fischer, the cold, subtle intriguer, with
schemes at the back of his mind which she knew quite well that, even in
the moment of his weakness, he intended to keep to himself; and
Lutchester, with his almost cynical devotion to pleasure, yet with his
unaccountable habit of suggesting a strength and qualities to which he
neither laid nor established any claim. Of the two men it was
Lutchester who piqued her, with whom she would have found more pleasure
in the battle of wits. She found herself alternately furious and
puzzled with him, yet her uneasiness concerning him possessed more
disquieting, more fascinating possibilities than any of the emotions
inspired by the other man.
Van Teyl returned to her presently, a little impressed.
"Thought I knew that chap's face," he observed. "It's Eli Hamblin--
Senator Hamblin, you know."
"A friend and confidant of the President," she murmured. "A Westerner,
too. I wonder what he's doing here ... Jimmy!"
"Hallo, Sis?"
"You've just got to be a dear," Pamela begged. "Go to the caddy master,
or professional, or some one, and find out whether Mr. Lutchester met
him here by accident or whether they arrived together."
"You'll turn me into a regular sleuthhound," he laughed. "However, here
goes."
He strolled off again, and Pamela found herself forced to become
mundane and frivolous whilst she chatted with some newly-arrived
acquaintances. It was not until some little time after her brother's
return that she found herself alone with him.
"Well?" she asked eagerly.
"They arrived within a few minutes of one another," Van Teyl announced.
"Senator Hamblin bought a couple of new balls and made some inquiries
about the course, but said nothing about playing. Lutchester, who
appears not to have known him, came up later and asked him if he'd like
a game. That's all I could find out."
Pamela pointed to a little cloud of dust in the distance.
"And there they go," she observed, "together."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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