American fiction -- 19th century; Dime novels; Popular literature
He has read of the ancient Circe, the stories of mythical mermaids who
sang so sweetly to mariners of old, and, strange as it may appear,
these things flash into his mind now.
Can it be a trap? Have his enemies arranged a nice little web to
entangle the Canadian fly?
That voice--no other could thrill him as it has done. He hesitates only
a few seconds, and she has hardly finished speaking when his mind is
quite made up.
To enter the booth it is necessary to drop down and under the counter
at one corner. Wycherley makes no effort to follow him, but stands
guard just outside, watching the couple for fear lest some evil befall
his companion, and casting an occasional glance across the way at the
sign of the fortune teller, while he listens for the beginning of the
infernal racket that will announce the wedding procession’s start from
the lower end of Cairo Street.
When Aleck has entered the booth, he pays no attention to the girl
who has charge of it and who has befriended Dorothy. All his doubt
is removed, for the latter has raised her veil. He is amazed to see
her here, after being assured by Samson Cereal that she would not be
notified of the plot.
Her agitation shows that she knows something of the danger. Time
presses, and Aleck awakens to the fact that whatever he does must be
done with speed.
“Miss Dorothy, how come you to be here?” he asks, pressing the hand
held out to him.
“It is too long a story to tell in detail. I heard something last
night, when that wild young man, Mr. Phœnix, was present, that not
only aroused my curiosity but my anxiety. It came back to me again and
again, how my father bade him be silent about the woman in Cairo Street
whom he had long believed dead. I could see from his actions that there
was a mystery behind it all. This evening when I sat alone after supper
I received a note. I don’t know how it came to the house, but someone
put it in my hands.
“This note--I can recall every word of it--was written in a hand
evidently unused to our language, but I made it out. It ran like this:
“I beg of you, sweet Dorothy, to come with your maid, or your
half-brother, to the Street in Cairo to-night at nine. I can no longer
remain silent. If I die for it I must see you, talk with you. Ask for
Saidee, the fortune teller. Your heart will tell you who it is signs
herself.
“ONE YOU HAVE LONG BELIEVED DEAD.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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