ROBERT BARR Ultimate Collection: 20 Novels & 65+ Detective Stories. Robert Barr

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СКАЧАТЬ in coming, but when she arrived her face was aglow with girlish delight at the solemn prank she was about to play.

      'You have not changed your mind?' I asked, after the morning's greetings.

      'Oh, no, Monsieur Valmont,' she replied, with a bright laugh. 'I am determined to recover those emeralds.'

      'We must hurry, Lady Alicia, or we will be too late.'

      'There is plenty of time,' she remarked calmly; and she proved to be right, because when we came in sight of the church, the clock pointed to the hour of half-past seven.

      'Now,' she said 'I shall wait here until you steal up to the church and look in through one of the windows that do not contain stained glass. I should not for the world arrive before Mr. Haddon and his friend are there.'

      I did as requested, and saw two young men standing together in the centre aisle, one in the full robes of a clergyman, the other in his ordinary dress, whom I took to be the Honourable John Haddon. His profile was toward me, and I must admit there was very little of the madman in his calm countenance. His was a well-cut face, clean shaven, and strikingly manly. In one of the pews was seated a woman—I learned afterwards she was Lady Alicia's maid, who had been instructed to come and go from the house by a footpath, while we had taken the longer road. I returned and escorted Lady Alicia to the church, and there was introduced to Mr. Haddon and his friend, the made-up divine. The ceremony was at once performed, and, man of the world as I professed myself to be, this enacting of private theatricals in a church grated upon me. When the maid and I were asked to sign the book as witnesses, I said:—

      'Surely this is carrying realism a little too far?'

      Mr. Haddon smiled, and replied:—

      'I am amazed to hear a Frenchman objecting to realism going to its full length, and speaking for myself, I should be delighted to see the autograph of the renowned Eugène Valmont,' and with that he proffered me the pen, whereupon I scrawled my signature. The maid had already signed, and disappeared. The reputed clergyman bowed us out of the church, standing in the porch to see us walk up the avenue.

      'Ed,' cried John Haddon, I'll be back within half an hour, and we'll attend to the clock. You won't mind waiting?'

      'Not in the least, dear boy. God bless you both,' and the tremor in his voice seemed to me carrying realism one step further still.

      The Lady Alicia, with downcast head, hurried us on until we were within the gloom of the forest, and then, ignoring me, she turned suddenly to the young man, and placed her two hands on his shoulders.

      'Oh, Jack, Jack!' she cried.

      He kissed her twice on the lips.

      'Jack, Monsieur Valmont insists on the emeralds.'

      The young man laughed. Her ladyship stood fronting him with her back towards me. Tenderly the young man unfastened something at the throat of that high-necked dress of hers, then there was a snap, and he drew out an amazing, dazzling, shimmering sheen of green, that seemed to turn the whole bleak December landscape verdant as with a touch of spring. The girl hid her rosy face against him, and over her shoulder, with a smile, he handed me the celebrated Blair emeralds.

      'There is the treasure, Valmont,' he cried, 'on condition that you do not molest the culprit.'

      'Or the accessory after the fact,' gurgled Lady Alicia in smothered tones, with a hand clasping together her high-necked dress at the throat.

      'We trust to your invention, Valmont, to deliver that necklace to uncle with a detective story that will thrill him to his very heart.'

      We heard the clock strike eight; then a second later smaller bells chimed a quarter-past, and another second after they tinkled the half-hour. 'Hallo!' cried Haddon, 'Ed has attended to the clock himself. What a good fellow he is.'

      'I looked at my watch; it was twenty-five minutes to nine.

      'Was the ceremony genuine then?' I asked.

      'Ah, Valmont,' said the young man, patting his wife affectionately on the shoulder, 'nothing on earth can be more genuine than that ceremony was.'

      And the volatile Lady Alicia snuggled closer to him.

      Jennie Baxter, Journalist

       Table of Contents

       CHAPTER I. JENNIE MAKES HER TOILETTE AND THE ACQUAINTANCE OF A PORTER.

       CHAPTER II. JENNIE HAS IMPORTANT CONFERENCES WITH TWO IMPORTANT EDITORS.

       CHAPTER III. JENNIE INTERVIEWS A FRIGHTENED OFFICIAL.

       CHAPTER IV. JENNIE LEARNS ABOUT THE DIAMONDS OF THE PRINCESS.

       CHAPTER V. JENNIE MEETS A GREAT DETECTIVE.

       CHAPTER VI. JENNIE SOLVES THE DIAMOND MYSTERY.

       CHAPTER VII. JENNIE ARRANGES A CINDERELLA VISIT.

       CHAPTER VIII. JENNIE MIXES WITH THE ELITE OF EARTH.

       CHAPTER IX. JENNIE REALIZES THAT GREAT EVENTS CAST THEIR SHADOWS BEHIND.

       CHAPTER X. JENNIE ASSISTS IN SEARCHING FOR HERSELF.

       CHAPTER XI. JENNIE ELUDES AN OFFER OF MARRIAGE.

       CHAPTER XII. JENNIE TOUCHES THE EDGE OF A GOVERNMENT SECRET.

       CHAPTER XIII. JENNIE INDULGES IN TEA AND GOSSIP.

       CHAPTER XIV. JENNIE BECOMES A SPECIAL POLICE OFFICER.

       CHAPTER XV. JENNIE BESTOWS INFORMATION UPON THE CHIEF OF POLICE.

       CHAPTER XVI. JENNIE VISITS A MODERN WIZARD IN HIS MAGIC ATTIC.

       CHAPTER XVII. JENNIE ENGAGES A ROOM IN A SLEEPING CAR.

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