The Riddle and the Ring; or, Won by NerveMacLaren, Gordon
General
The Riddle and the Ring; or, Won by Nerve
MacLaren, Gordon
Adventure stories; Detective and mystery stories; Dime novels; New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction
The massive façade of the Pennsylvania Station had caught his eye, and
brought new hope to his numbed brain. Here at least would be
comparative warmth, and they could not very well turn him out. He could
pretend that he was waiting for a train, and might sit for hours in the
waiting room. After that—— Well, he did not wish to think of
afterward.
He was only just beginning to recover from the stupefying cold which had
numbed and chilled him to the marrow, and driven him into the great
station to keep from dropping in the icy, wind-swept street.
He fancied that the passing porters looked at him curiously. When the
announcer strolled near him, he felt impelled to turn toward the news
stand in the corner. At least he could afford a paper. It was about
the only thing he could buy now, and with it he could retire to the
waiting room with some semblance of naturalness.
It was as he turned away from the stand that his eyes met, for the first
time, those of the little man in black. Lawrence did not notice his
appearance particularly then, but averted his eyes, and strode toward
the men’s waiting room. Here it was much warmer. The benches were well
filled, but he found a seat facing the door, spread out his paper, and
began to read.
Perhaps five minutes later he happened to glance up in time to see that
same short, slim, precise figure pass the bench on which he sat. Of
course, there might have been nothing more than a coincidence in
it—people are constantly walking about a station while waiting for a
train, and one frequently notices the same face half a dozen times in
the space of a few minutes.
Still, Lawrence felt annoyed. His recent experience of having been
followed and spied upon had so worn on his nerves that he constantly
found himself suspicious of even the most casual glance. A frown
furrowed his wide forehead, and, though his eyes dropped again to the
printed sheet before him, he could not seem to dismiss the commonplace
stranger from his mind.
Thus it happened that, when the man passed the bench again, Lawrence
threw back his head swiftly, and caught the pale, grayish eyes fixed on
his face with a stealthy, but unmistakably intent, scrutiny. The lids
drooped instantly, and the stranger continued his pacing without a
pause, Barry’s glance followed him suspiciously.
This man did not look at all like the others who had made his life
miserable for months. He seemed so insignificant, with his slight,
spare form, his pale eyes, and rather weak face. He looked more like a
bookkeeper or clerk, grown old and sedate in the service of some
long-established banking house, than anything Lawrence could think of;
though that did not seem to fit him exactly.
Now the man had turned and was coming back, and Barry, noticing his face
intently, found himself wondering whether he was really old or not.
After all, he might easily have been thirty-five or so; it was his
iron-gray hair and curiously set expression which made him seem older.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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