Read Online Free Book

The Call of the Cumberlands

Page 91

"Since Wilfred is in the party to take care of things, and look after

you," suggested Lescott, as he came into the room a trifle late, "I

think I'll say good-by here, and run along to the studio. Samson is

probably feeling like a new boy in school this morning. You'll find the

usual litter of flowers and fiction in your staterooms to attest my

filial and brotherly devotion."

"Was the brotherly sentiment addressed to me?" inquired Wilfred, with

an unsmiling and brazen gravity that brought to the girl's eyes and

lips a half-mocking and wholly decorative twinkle of amusement.

"Just because I try to be a sister to you, Wilfred," she calmly

reproved, "I can't undertake to make my brother do it, too. Besides, he

couldn't be a sister to you."

"But by dropping that attitude--which is entirely gratuitous--you will

compel him to assume it. My sentiment as regards brotherly love is

brief and terse, 'Let George do it!'" Mr. Horton was complacently

consuming his breakfast with an excellent appetite, to which the

prospect of six weeks among Bermuda lilies with Adrienne lent a fillip.

"So, brother-to-be," he continued, "you have my permission to run

along down-town, and feed your savage."

"Beg pardon, sir!" The Lescott butler leaned close to the painter's

ear, and spoke with a note of apology as though deploring the necessity

of broaching such a subject. "But will you kindly speak with the

Macdougal Street Police Station?"

"With the what?" Lescott turned in surprise, while Horton surrendered

himself to unrestrained and boisterous laughter.

"The barbarian!" he exclaimed. "I call that snappy work. Twelve hours

in New York, and a run-in with the police! I've noticed," he added, as

the painter hurriedly quitted the room, "that, when you take the bad

man out of his own cock-pit, he rarely lasts as far as the second round."

"It occurs to me, Wilfred," suggested Adrienne, with the hint of

warning in her voice, "that you may be just a trifle overdoing your

attitude of amusement as to this barbarian. George is fond of him, and

believes in him, and George is quite often right in his judgment."

"George," added Mrs. Lescott, "had a broken arm down there in the

mountains, and these people were kind to him in many ways. I wish I

could see Mr. South, and thank him."

Lescott's manner over the telephone was indicating to a surprised desk

sergeant a decidedly greater interest than had been anticipated, and,

after a brief and pointed conversation in that quarter, he called

another number. It was a private number, not included in the telephone

book and communicated with the residence of an attorney who would not

have permitted the generality of clients to disturb him in advance of

office hours.

PrevPage ListNext