登陆注册
5287900000023

第23章 CHAPTER VII(2)

Thus, she corresponded with a friend of her mother's in India. She talked at times as if it were her ideal home, and showed many tastes which might well be vestiges of early Oriental impressions. She made herself a rude hammock,--such as are often used in hot climates,--and swung it between two elms. Here she would lie in the hot summer days, and fan herself with the sandal-wood fan her friend in India had sent her,--the perfume of which, the women said, seemed to throw her into day-dreams, which were almost like trances.

These circumstances gave a general direction to his ideas, which were presently fixed more exactly by two circumstances which he learned for himself and kept to himself; for he had no idea of making a hue and cry, and yet he did not mean that Myrtle Hazard should get away if he could help it.

The first fact was this. He found among the copies of the city newspaper they took at The Poplars a recent number from which a square had been cut out. He procured another copy of this paper of the same date, and found that the piece cut out was an advertisement to the effect that the A 1 Ship Swordfish, Captain Hawkins, was to sail from Boston for Calcutta, on the 20th of June.

The second fact was the following. On the window-sill of her little hanging chamber, which the women allowed him to inspect, he found some threads of long, black, glossy hair caught by a splinter in the wood. They were Myrtle's of course. A simpleton might have constructed a tragedy out of this trivial circumstance,--how she had cast herself from the window into the waters beneath it,--how she had been thrust out after a struggle, of which this shred from her tresses was the dreadful witness,--and so on. Murray Bradshaw did not stop to guess and wonder. He said nothing about it, but wound the shining threads on his finger, and, as soon as he got home, examined them with a magnifier. They had been cut off smoothly, as with a pair of scissors. This was part of a mass of hair, then, which had been shorn and thrown from the window. Nobody would do that but she herself. What would she do it for? To disguise her sex, of course. The other inferences were plain enough.

The wily young man put all these facts and hints together, and concluded that be would let the rustics drag the ponds and the river, and scour the woods and swamps, while he himself went to the seaport town from which she would without doubt sail if she had formed the project he thought on the whole most probable.

Thus it was that we found him hurrying to the nearest station to catch the train to Boston, while they were all looking for traces of the missing girl nearer home. In the cars he made the most suggestive inquiries he could frame, to stir up the gentlemanly conductor's memory. Had any young fellow been on the train within a day or two, who had attracted his notice? Smooth, handsome face, black eyes, short black hair, new clothes, not fitting very well, looked away when he paid his fare, had a soft voice like a woman's,--had he seen anybody answering to some such description as this? The gentlemanly conductor had not noticed,--was always taking up and setting down way-passengers,--might have had such a young man aboard,--there was two or three students one day in the car singing college songs,--he did n't care how folks looked if they had their tickets ready,--and minded their own business,--and, so saying, he poked a young man upon whose shoulder a ringleted head was reclining with that delightful abandon which the railroad train seems to provoke in lovely woman,--"Fare!"It is a fine thing to be set down in a great, overcrowded hotel, where they do not know you, looking dusty, and for the moment shabby, with nothing but a carpet-bag in your hand, feeling tired, and anything but clean, and hungry, and worried, and every way miserable and mean, and to undergo the appraising process of the gentleman in the office, who, while he shoves the book round to you for your name, is making a hasty calculation as to how high up he can venture to doom you. But Murray Bradshaw's plain dress and carpet-bag were more than made up for by the air and tone which imply the habit of being attended to. The clerk saw that in a glance, and, as he looked at the name and address in the book, spoke sharply in the explosive dialect of his tribe,--"Jun! ta'tha'genlm'n'scarpetbag'n'showhimupt'thirtyone!"When Cyprian Eveleth reached the same hotel late at night, he appeared in his best clothes and with a new valise; but his amiable countenance and gentle voice and modest manner sent him up two stories higher, where he found himself in a room not much better than a garret, feeling lonely enough, for he did not know he had an acquaintance in the same house. The two young men were in and out so irregularly that it was not very strange that they did not happen to meet each other.

The young lawyer was far more likely to find Myrtle if she were in the city than the other, even with the help of his cousin Edward. He was not only older, but sharper, better acquainted with the city and its ways, and, whatever might be the strength of Cyprian's motives, his own were of such intensity that he thought of nothing else by day, and dreamed of nothing else by night. He went to work, therefore, in the most systematic manner. He first visited the ship Swordfish, lying at her wharf, saw her captain, and satisfied himself that as yet nobody at all corresponding to the description of Myrtle Hazard had been seen by any person on board. He visited all the wharves, inquiring on every vessel where it seemed possible she might have been looking about. Hotels, thoroughfares, every place where he might hear of her or meet her, were all searched. He took some of the police into his confidence, and had half a dozen pairs of eyes besides his own opened pretty widely, to discover the lost girl.

同类推荐
  • 传法正宗论

    传法正宗论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 二十四画品

    二十四画品

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Illustrious Prince

    The Illustrious Prince

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说菩萨修行经

    佛说菩萨修行经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Oldport Days

    Oldport Days

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • Hope Is a Ferris Wheel
  • 创业改变命运

    创业改变命运

    创业改变命运,作者郭瑞增,天津科学技术出版社2008年1月出版。本书是关于教你如何成功创业,改变自己人生的专著,书中列举了马云、史玉柱等人的成功故事。从这些成功创业者的故事中,我们需要获取的,不是迅速致富的宝典,而是传递给自己一种自我努力、发愤图强的精神动力,使我们在今后的人生道路上,向着灿烂和辉煌迈进。
  • 娘子大人请减肥

    娘子大人请减肥

    陆老爷:闺女,咱减肥。陆花暖:爹爹,你嫉妒人家身材。路人:陆小姐,减肥吧。陆花暖:哎呦,我知道你说是反话,你是喜欢我了吧,为了吸引我注意力。某人:减肥。陆花暖:是的,相公大人。某人:不要叫我相公。我陆花暖,花痴+自恋,所以说世界的帅哥都是我的,哈哈。
  • 契约小娇妻

    契约小娇妻

    “悠然,记住,我叫夏铭,夏天的夏,刻骨铭心的铭。”她是高傲的贵族女子,一夜之间沦为普通人。他,是坐在轮椅上的美男。一张卖身契,将两人绑在一起。她傲气,他温柔,她暴走,他包容。“除了我,谁敢这样宠你。”
  • 春耕的牛事

    春耕的牛事

    春耕的声名远播源于一次惊心动魄的意外。那天,春耕正拿着挠子给他的黄牛梳毛,忽然街上传来声嘶力竭的尖叫和呼喊声,呼喊声有男有女,令人心惊肉跳。春耕冲出院子,跑到街上,几个女子尖叫着跌跌撞撞地沿着大街往东跑,街上横七竖八地倒着几辆自行车。其中穿红衣服的玉兰尤为显眼。一头健壮的种牛偏愣着脑袋,拖着缰绳,由西向东疯狂地奔跑着追过来,震得街面都跟着颤动。六十多岁的臭粪在后边一边跑一边喊着什么,突然就跌倒了。春耕看出,这是臭粪牵着他的种牛到湾边饮水,种牛突然看到穿红色衣服的女孩,受了刺激,挣脱缰绳冲了过来。
  • 江湖十二楼

    江湖十二楼

    六十年前剑圣前辈羽化登仙之时,为了不让一身所学的功夫失传,便留下了一本秘籍《花月宝典》,包含了毕生所学。传闻,得到“花月宝典”就可以得到整个天下……
  • 契爱成婚:首席夜少宠上瘾

    契爱成婚:首席夜少宠上瘾

    【我打开了地狱的大门,浴血重生只为复仇而来。】遭遇姐姐陷害、赶出家门、被人追杀,死亡之际,他如黑夜中的王者出现在了她的眼前,决定着她的生与死。“我为什么要救你!”“我什么都愿意做。”十六岁的蒋梦兮看清了蒋家人的真面目‘死’在了寒天山脚下……六年时间,她打开地狱大门,化身恶魔归来,虐渣男、毁恶姐,将蒋家搞的翻天覆地,却没想到由始至终她是一个棋子,一个替身。可当她离开的时候,他却说:“你的命是我的,你的人是我的……你的心也只能我的!”他当她是棋子,她知道他们之间的契约,既然如此功成身退,惹不起躲得起,躲到他找不到,躲到他失去耐心,躲到他忘了她。“你躲也躲了,藏也藏了,三年你避够了吧。”“你找也找了,追也追了,三年你逮够了吧。”“红灯区你也躲,你太没底线了吧。”“红灯街你也来,你当来大保健啊。”“现在你别想躲了,准备给我生猴子。”“滚你丫的。”
  • 快穿之龙套抢戏日常

    快穿之龙套抢戏日常

    清瑶看到有一个难完成的任务,“2588,我们去下一个世界吧。”“辣鸡宿主,这么简单的任务都完不成。”2588忍不住怼人。“是你挑的任务,你就不知道找简单的任务嘛。”“是你辣鸡,还怪我选的任务太难。辣鸡宿主,辣鸡宿主,辣鸡宿主。”2588又开始碎碎念。
  • 世界上总有那么一个人在爱你

    世界上总有那么一个人在爱你

    年轻富有的林浩轩,是许多女人的梦中情人,但他本人却无视女人和爱情。一次偶遇,他看上了弟弟同学管智宸的女友顾微微,从而不能自拔并开始了百折不挠的疯狂追求……这一切激怒了管智宸,同时也让单纯的顾微微,在林浩轩的“霸气”中,对管智宸的爱更加坚定!但顾家的债务危机让林浩轩终于抓住了机会,顾微微无奈答应了林浩轩结婚的要求。这只是一个有名无实的婚姻,这只是林浩轩一厢情愿的一种方式,同一个屋檐之下,面对旧爱神伤,面对林浩轩的付出,顾微微又当何去何从呢?
  • 话江湖之唯我独尊

    话江湖之唯我独尊

    这是一个武侠世界,在这里有丐帮的掌出降龙,佛门的金刚伏魔,移花的玉女痴情,以及神秘的逍遥御风……是谁在谈笑之间,伏尸百里,是谁让各大门派纷纷变色,连番退让,是谁引起的武林大乱,又是谁掀起了一场血雨腥风……人在江湖身不由己,你不服我尽管来战!因为我叫毕行,所以我言出必行!